dotHack Fragment One - Recall
by FrozenLightningRai
Summary: After Cubia is defeated, The World returns to normal. Jikan, an older player, returns after the incident ends only to be the center of a new threat to the Internet. Synaethasia, a mysterious Adept Rogue, appears to hold the key to the truth. First part. (OCs, no romances) Fragment/One. (Previously on hiatus, now returning in Fragment/Two soon. No references to Fragment, the MMO.)
1. False Start

It had been awhile since Hiraku gave The World R: 2 another spin. After the ADIA incident, which he learned about through some of his friends, he initially felt hesitant to log in again. He had two accounts on The World, one of which he abandoned due to the fame he acquired before all of the AIDA and Cubia events started. Hiraku logged in, User name: Heir of Air, Password: well... hah, you won't get that far with him.

Hiraku presently played as a Flick Reaper; he had always loved scythes, so he had decided that since he was abandoning his old account, he'd give that class a go. Hiraku was level 84 on that account; he wasn't really all that keen on making this account as much of a power horse immediately like his old account. He wanted to enjoy the challenges with what little few acquaintances he made.

When Hiraku played before, he was an active Emperor of the Sage Palace, being a level 149 player tended to help win some battles every once and awhile. The old account's name was Jikan, as it was meant to stick with him throughout his time in The World. Unfortunately, he hadn't expected the fame that came with the title Emperor. He was constantly followed, and always, just when he least expected it, Jikan was either attacked or friend requested.

Eventually he grew tired of it and threw a title match to a new rising star in the Arena in Lumina Cloth, Taihaku, an older gentleman with the skills that would have put him to the test had he been closer to his level. Instead, he never went, and Taihaku won by default. With Jikan's claim to fame no longer following him around, Hiraku was able to finally go under the radar and create Heir to Air.

On both accounts, Hiraku joined the guild named Kestrel, as it was a loosely controlled group that allowed him to do as he wished. Now, you know that Kestrel has a pretty bad reputation, what with the PKers that make up the general populace in there. As Jikan, Hiraku worked alone, but when he saw a PKer strike a low blow, he tended to eliminate the Pker instead. As Heir to Air, Hiraku mostly stayed around because the second-in-command, Kuhn, was a pretty cool guy. Not to mention that his flirty habits amused Hiraku.

Heir to Air, or as he's known by, Heir, opened his eyes and saw his first looks at The World since Alkaid joined Icolo. Jikan had merely acknowledged the new member, but it was later that day when Jikan threw away his match.

The forums always had something about the current Icolo members, and Hiraku had done some research into the current members. To his surprise, Taihaku was still the Sage Palace's Emperor. He'd probably visit the Emperor later when he had grown accustomed to the game again. Alkaid was no longer a member of Icolo, but then again, the young girl seemed too erratic to stay in for long. She needed to keep a firm grasp on what was happening, but it seemed to him she was too jittery.

Things had changed slightly in Mac Anu, the Delta Server, but it was for the better. The Chaos Gate, the image he associated The World with, was left untouched, and still had the same sprites occur whenever he used it. The keyword system was the same too, so he was able to easily transfer to see his nostalgic past in its full glory. The Omega Server, or Lumina Cloth, looked just as great, even better than before! All of the spotlights in the sky and the buildings' designs, all was improved. And there were so many members here too, all competing with each other in heated battles. He overheard a couple of fired-up PCs talking about strategy in a battle they were preparing for. Heir smiled and transferred himself to Theta Server, or otherwise known as Dol Dona.

Heir, being a Flick Reaper, was pretty thin, yet rather muscular too. He had spiky blond hair and a face that wasn't going to at least scare half the ladies away (Probably a memento from Kuhn). He wore a navy blue jacket that extended to only above his navel, sleek and shiny black slacks with green lightning-like marks running down the legs, and a thin, fingerless glove on his right hand. Most of this was made on impulse, but in the end, Heir's design was decent.

Heir slipped into the screens of data when he checked through his lists of items when a flash-mail popped up. Kain, one of his newer friends had contacted him, wanting to know if the Flick Reaper was available to party up. Kain was an oddball, sure, but he liked him. He was an Edge Punisher with blazing red hair and only a pair of armored pants that assimilated into his hairstyle's appearance. Kain was strange in the fact that he was anti-social to pretty much any other player in The World, yet to Heir he wanted company.

Heir sent a quick reply back, saying that he wouldn't join him today, but probably sometime soon. He didn't exactly feel like leveling up, even though any area six or seven levels stronger would be a good challenge. Heir cycled through his friends list, which was mostly filled with members of Kestrel. Kuhn was online, but he was busy. Gabi wasn't free either, but he wasn't expecting to hang out with the Guild Master.

Dol Dona is a forest-like town filled with beast-type NPCs, as the Theta Server, in the historical sense, was the city of the Beasts. It was the root town for the intermediate players, which Heir was. The other Server left unmentioned was the Sigma Server, Breg Epona, the root town for the strongest players.

Satisfied with his brief visit in The World, Heir prepared to log out before he received a flash mail from Kuhn. "_No way, is that really you on? :) I knew I caught you at the right time, you probably didn't know about this, but I've long since left Kestrel. I made a guild called Canard, which could use some help from an experienced player_-" the message read. Heir was interrupted in reading it as he was forcibly warped to a dungeon.

Heir looked side to side; he hadn't done anything that would even cause him to warp. He shut the menu off and closed the message. Whatever Kuhn wanted to say would have to wait for now. This area didn't have any enemies in it, which gave the plain an eerie aura. He tried to look up the keywords for the area, but found... corrupted words?

Heir took his twin blade weapons out, immediately suspicious of the area. A flicker of movement caught Heirs attention, but nothing was there. His hands went cold on the controller as more and more flickers of movement danced across his screen. His FMD started to glitch slightly, so he reset the piece, and put it back on. The next thing the Heir to Air saw was another player.

Something didn't seem right with this player though, his wearing corroded purple, black, and white armor. He had purple, stick-like wings protruding from his back, and his hair covered his eyes. He wasn't smiling, so whatever this guy was, he meant business. He was holding onto a black sword with a red edge, which he pointed towards Heir.

"Look, I don't know what you want from me, but you obviously have the wrong guy here," Heir said, putting his hands in the air. The strange PC didn't seem to acknowledge what he just said. "But hey, you're here too, so do you know how to get out?" Heir asked hesitantly.

"AIDA." He said, his voice coming out corrupted. The mysterious man's sword vanished as several purple panels of circuited data appeared around his wrist.

"Whoa, guy, let's take things one step at a time here, I'm just a regular player you know!" Heir said quickly, his twin blades stored away and his hands in the air. Small circlets of the same type of data wrapped around Heir's body, and suddenly he couldn't feel his controller. Heir couldn't feel anything at all on his body in the real world, to be factual. The plates extended outwards and several tendrils of data streams shot through his body. Pain flared throughout his body, which denied his logic of this being just a game. He shouldn't be feeling pain right now, but it was plain as day that his body was on fire.

The tendrils retreated from him and the pain faded away. Whatever the objective the man wanted to accomplish, he seemed to be satisfied. Heir's vision started to blur, and the man warped out of the area.

This was NOT happening, this was just a really bad... well, he didn't know what just happened, but he'd log out and sort things together in his mind. That is, until when he tried to log out, nothing happened. Heir started to panic, but his body wouldn't move to his control. His screen turned black, and he was in absolutely nothingness.

It was strange, but the pain wasn't there anymore. He considered just staying around there but a log in screen prompted his action. It was automatically set to Jikan, which wasn't the most confidence inspiring thing. But if this unable to log out situation were to continue, he admitted he'd rather be on Jikan instead. He input his password and woke up again in darkness.

This time, however, he was playing as his main account Jikan. He could see his Adept Rogue's body floating in the darkness. His long, silver hair was starting to flow wildly, and the white fabric of his clothes was doing the same. He wore white robes that were bound on his left arm and right leg and some of his upper chest by intricately inscribed, white plates of armor bearing wind wave crest, arches with a dot just below the middle of the arch. He had pronounced canines, and calm sea blue eyes. A sky crest rested directly on his forehead. When the cloth flowed out of the way, another sky crest was on his right forearm.

His current dark world began to load graphics, but it was mostly dark, and random orbs floated in random directions. Black dots jumped around the area, but eventually there was a platform for Jikan's body to drift onto. More black dots appeared as a figure started to form in front of Jikan. It took a few seconds, but then he realized that the figure was rapidly growing larger and larger, growing more beast like to the extent of growing two misshapen wings and a small, yet wide tail. It bent down and its overall shape turned into some sort of massive, cyan horned hawk.

The abnormal avian appeared to look down on Jikan, who couldn't move even if he tried. It appeared to create a perching post and clutched it with its feet. This thing… Jikan had heard rumors about things like these, but they were just those. A Pker by the name of Bordeaux had claimed to have seen a giant monster during the duration he took his leave from The World. The player said it was called AIDA, but AIDA was just supposed to be a computer virus. That, and CC Corporation had said that all of the problems had been corrected as of the end of July. It all lasted a year, from 2016 to 2017, which seemed like a long time for something like a virus to last. But if this thing was an AIDA like what the PKer claimed these things were, that means that he'd probably become the first victim with Doll's Syndrome for AIDA's second strike.

As he was mulling over these negative thoughts, the AIDA watched him comprehensively. "_You hold an older model of us._" The hawk AIDA stated. "_In fact, the malevolent faction of AIDA as well."_ It added.

Jikan stared at the virus, uncertain what it meant. He couldn't have been infected as he never went comatose, and besides, he left before all of the insanity began. Jikan wasn't certain if this was a delusion or not, and he was especially hesitant to communicate with the virus. Jikan made up his mind and asked. "What do you mean?"

The AIDA seemed surprised that the human actually was willing to talk to it. "_Your PC is infected with the old AIDA._" The hawk paused, sensing Jikan's utter confusion. "_Our presence was within the Internet for a long time, constantly growing and expanding as we watched humans. But time passed, and as we were a single entity, we are actually several beings working as one._

"_As we watched, the humans became skilled in the various uses of our home, and our notice was drawn to certain human attempts to hack the Internet, and therefore causing abnormalities within. That angered several sentient AIDA that wanted to protect our home, and caused them to use force on the humans. This started over a year ago." _The virus explained.

Jikan thought about what he said at the beginning. "So does that mean that… you aren't one of the AIDA that attacked all of those people? That you aren't in league with the other viruses that crippled the real world?" he asked.

"_Correct. We, AIDA, were split in two. The other side wished to do more than just watch. It wanted, while protecting The World and the Internet, to continue its research into humans. We remained hidden and unobtrusive, the others attacked and experimented._" AIDA grunted afterword.

"I quit the winter following the first AIDA outbreak… which means that it is possible then…" Jikan murmured.

"_Yes, human._"

"So tell me, why is my PC still infected? CC Corp told us that the AIDA infection… um, no offense-"

"_We take none._"

"-had been removed from the Internet. Why am I still infected with the malicious side then?" Jikan asked.

"_You're… Your PC… had been infected with a virus that both harbored and protected it the host from outside interference._" The virus stated. "_After so long without much opposition, though, the AIDA, tainted by anger, thought that the effort wasn't needed, and recalled the programs from the net. Your Player Character, by that time, wasn't online anymore, and therefore, the program which both held an AIDA and its protection, wasn't alerted to the call back._"

"So I have an AIDA inside of me right now?" Jikan panicked.

"_Settle down. The Anna fragment within you isn't functional. It seems to have been damaged recently, and its ability to control you is no longer effective._" The virus explained. "_However, it is an AI regardless. It will attempt to repair itself in time._" It cautioned.

"So am I just doomed to fall into the grasp of AIDA?" Jikan despaired.

"_We don't think so. If… If we were to connect with the damaged AIDA inside you, we could reprogram the intentions of it."_ The hawk mused.

"And you're willing to do that?" Jikan asked humbly.

"_We can try. I, Striatus, will reprogram the AIDA which inhabits your PC's data._" The AIDA, which he now knew as Striatus pronounced.

Striatus' cyan wings burst out and stretched out, with several platforms of red and green data appearing all over its wings. A larger, cannon-like object appeared hear the chest of the hawk and links between the wings and the chest appeared. Jikan took a step back, intimidated by the show. A small red bolt appeared in the barrel of cannon and it fired. The bolt struck Jikan's body, similar to when the mysterious PC did earlier. Instead of pain, this time he felt nothing. Something seemed to be moving within him, and a bright green orb of data exited Jikan's body.

Looking closer at the orb, he saw red sparks rummaging throughout the orb. Within a second the green orb turned blue, and a large, black diamond core appeared in the center of it. The orb returned to his body, and this time the pain burned throughout Jikan's body. His PC began to reset and he was warped out of whatever dark area he was at before.

Hiraku woke up on his futon in his room awhile later. His hand instinctively touched his chest, but he couldn't put a reason to it. The older teen didn't recall going to sleep, let alone what happened after he was reading the flash-mail from Kuhn. His head pulsed with blood every second and the cause of which annoyed him.

One thing he couldn't recall was what had stopped him from reading the rest of Kuhn's short mail. He said… something about leaving Kestrel and making a new guild. The reason he had joined Kestrel with Jikan and Heir was because of Kuhn. Not wanting to seem rude to his old friend, Hiraku got up to his feet and got on his email.

The teenager checked the clock, and two hours had passed since he was last aware of what had happened; it was now 4 in the afternoon. _Sorry about not responding to your short mail you sent me earlier today._ _Something came up, and I guess I ended up taking a nap. I'm kind of tired, so I think I'll call it quits. I'll be ready to answer your email in a few more hours. -Hiraku Masaru. _He pressed send and sat for a second in his computer's chair rubbing his eyes.

Hiraku shut his computer down and rested on the futon again, rubbing his forehead. Certainly, the blank in his memory of just a couple hours ago was a cause of concern, but with his single life, and with him juggling his ever-shrinking social life, The World, and a job, stress was starting to catch up Hiraku.


	2. Oblivious Suspicions

**AN:** I'm still not used to doing these things... completely forgot the notes!

Anyways, in this chapter, we meet two new characters, and an older... eherm.. friend. Jeez, just wait until the Sage Palace arc. .

* * *

Hiraku had slept completely until the next day and his body felt dead and tired when he woke up. He took around an hour to completely wake up, but after his morning rituals, he sat at his computer and logged in.

Hiraku had subconsciously logged into Jikan, and he was about to log back off until a flash-mail from Kuhn popped up. _I read your email. I hope you're feeling better. Hey, I got an idea, why don't you hang out with me? :D_

Jikan considered, but even he had his duties in Kestrel as Jikan. Gabi was online, but was busy as usual. He wrote a flash-mail to him describing what was going on. His reply, as usual, was only a couple sentences long, but the jist of it explained that Jikan was to accompany one of the lower leveled players and to just get his feel back for the day.

The area Jikan was to go to first to wait for this weak PC was Delta: Unseeing, Sever, Gathering. It was a forest dungeon, but it was only a level 2 area. The player he was supposed to be following was a player named Asta, a level 47 Edge Punisher. There were either two reasons that she could be here, either there was a rare item at the Beast Statue, or she was finding easy prey. Most likely, it was the latter.

A PC, Asta, warped in next to the Chaos Gate with two other girls. Asta had green hair, and seemed fragile looking in contrast to her class. She wore black armor, leaving plenty of skin showing around her navel, and her body was decorated generously with red wave symbols. She had a purple, over sized hat which made her character seem a bit ridiculous.

Her two companions, both at level 1, were a Steam Gunner and a Twin Blade. The Steam Gunner had bright orange hair and wore thick red and yellow robes, decorated in only the chest with a wave symbol. She had a yellow hat too, but it wasn't near the size of Asta's. The Twin Blade, on the other hand, seemed normal compared to the flaring Steam Gunner. She had light blond hair and wore sleeveless tan robes with black markings running up and down her legs and arms.

In an instant, the two new players picked Jikan out and started murmured about his "Insanely high level". The Adept Rogue walked over to the group, and the two girls huddled closer together. Asta, on the other hand, bit her lip and scowled at him. "So you're the one that's supposed to be replacing IYOTEN for today?" the Edge Punisher.

"I guess so. Why are you here in a place so weak for your own level?" Jikan asked.

"I'm just showing the ropes to these cute newbies." Asta sighed. The two girls behind her nodded in agreement.

"Well, I guess I'll just tag along or something. With a level 47 here, that's already overkill. No need for me to obliterate these things." Jikan whistled.

"So, does that mean you aren't here to PK us off the bat?" the Twin Blade asked.

The Adept Rogue stared at the girl darkly before wordlessly moving on. He wasn't a part of Moon Tree, which was for sure. If somebody decided to kill another PC here, that was their choice, not his. If a PKer went rampant across The World, the Moon Tree guild would be on it in an instant trying to 'persuade' him to quit his ways. Just like with what happened with The Terror of Death.

The two newbies led the way, closely followed by Asta, who explained various things to them. Jikan followed from a small distance, keeping an eye on things and just talking with some of his friends from way back. Jikan had to admit that the excitement the two girls shared was rather cute, and their energetic enthusiasm made Jikan appreciate their innocence to PKers.

Eventually, as time would come, the group fell upon the forest's boss, a Gun Giant, or basically a large behemoth of an enemy with giant cannons for hands. Compared to the enemies the two faced together, this thing was at least three levels stronger than them. He forgot to keep count, did the two girls level up once or twice?

Asta began shouting out advice to the girls, but they had their cooperation down. The Steam Gunner would distract the Giant long enough for its attention to be drawn to her, then the Twin blade would begin a flurry of attacks that would once again distract the Giant. Within a few minutes, the Giant was defeated and the pair of girls leveled up again. Considering that the boss was here, than the Beast Statue wasn't far ahead.

Sure enough, the two parties finally reached the Statue. The Steam Gunner and Twin Blade were ecstatic enough from their first victory, but they waited behind letting Asta deem of who got possession of the treasure. Asta, however, was content in letting the two girls decide for themselves.

The Twin Blade was the one who got the treasure in the end, which turned out to be a scythe; neither of them could use it anyways. Asta congratulated the two girls on their first clear and began to tell them a few extra things.

Jikan's foreboding sense told him that what he suspected earlier was true, Asta was a known PKer, but since Jikan hadn't been on long enough to know what type of PKer she was, he had let the situation slide. Now, seeing the Edge Punisher start to tense up as she deliberately toyed with their emotions, Jikan's pride wouldn't allow the PKer to get her way. For the moment, he'd wait until she had unsheathed her weapon.

"Alright, Sylph, Serrara, I think you two just might make it in The World," Asta complimented. "...But I think it's time that I wrap this job up!" Asta shouted, summoning her giant claymore. The two girls, which had just been high-fiving each other turned to Asta in shock and disbelief.

"But... But Asta, you just said that we did a good job!" the Twin Blade named Sylph whimpered at her former teacher's change.

Asta said nothing but revved her blade, as the edges were similar to a chainsaw. The Adept Rogue took his opportunity and summoned a dark red katana and quickly blocked Asta's path; the Adept Rogue's katana found the tip of its blade pressing directly on the PC's heart.

"Jikan?" the PKer exclaimed. "What the hell are you doing? Get out of my way!" the PKer ordered.

"I'll think not. Reconsider this dishonorable act. They're 42 levels weaker than you, where is the fun in that?" Jikan asked.

The Edge Punisher only stared at the Adept Rogue. "It's their emotions! It's so fun to just-" the PKer began, but the Adept Rogue had heard enough. Manipulating the emotions of those that couldn't fight back to you wasn't Jikan's idea of _fun_. Jikan's blade pierced through the PC's body, which immediately defeated the weaker player. The instant victory didn't even phase the experience to his next level, the Adept Rogue noted.

Asta's PC turned black and faded away. After a minute, Jikan removed the stationary blade from the spot where it had defeated the weaker PC. It was somewhat hypocritical to him, too. He was over 100 levels stronger than the defeated PC, and that no doubt made the Kestrel member feel a slight fear, if anything at all. But, since the two new members would have received a greater emotional shock, Jikan decided that the PKer, which had experience with defeat, would get over it.

"T-thank you?" the Steam Gunner, Serrara stuttered. He turned around and dismissed the katana. Serrara flinched as he completed the turn to stare at the two, much weaker PCs.

"For what?" Jikan asked. "For correcting a cynical player? You don't have to thank me." The Adept Rogue crossed his arms. Thank Gabi instead. Did Gabi fully know about this behavior of his Guild? Or did he send him here knowing that he'd make someone reconsider their habits? God, that man's thoughts were indecipherable. "Look... Coming to Kestrel for help isn't the smartest thing a new player like you two can do." Jikan suddenly remembered Kuhn's message. "You know, I just might have an idea. Look... Well... Wait a minute for me." The Adept Rogue said, opening his menu and prepared a Flash-mail for Kuhn.

_Kuhn, I had some stuff to do. You still free? I just stopped a double PK, and the victims were two new, right out of the character creation screens. I thought about what you said... What was the Guild named? Canard? Meet me at Mac Anu, I think that we should talk. –Jikan. _He sent the message, and waited for a response.

"Thank you anyways, Jikan." Serrara said, standing up straight. "We were wondering... Can we have your Member Address? In case we have any more trouble?" She asked. The Twin Blade nodded as well. The Adept Rogue scratched his silver hair and sighed.

"If you must, but I'm setting you up with a more reliable source; you should ask them for help more than me. Besides, I'm not always great with problems." The Adept Rogue said. As soon as the three finished exchanging Addresses, a little set of bells went off, alerting Jikan to a Flash-mail.

_No problem, turns out something just happened on my side as well. I won't be able to meet you at Mac, but I'm certain that the Guild Master, Haseo, should be happy to have another member. Maybe in like an hour we can talk.-Kuhn._ Jikan finished reading the message. Wait, HASEO? Haseo, The Terror of Death, Haseo? What the hell was a famous PKKer doing in a newbie support group Guild?

"Alright, you two, warp out of here and head to the Guild shops. I'll be right behind you." Jikan ordered. The two players obeyed and warped out of the area.

The actual reason Jikan stayed behind was that Hiraku was feeling pain and exhaustion in his real body. He felt as if his chest was aching, and his mind was temporarily getting blurry. He waited only a minute before he recovered from the strange wave of pain and diverted his attention back to Jikan. Immediately, he warped out of the forest.

He warped in at the same instance two PCs did too. One had green leather attire and long hair kept in a ponytail, he seemed like he was a fairly nice guy to hang around. The other wore white armor plates and had a gear-shaped fan extending from his neck, unkempt silver hair with a couple red triangular symbols on his cheeks, and finally had golden eyes. The two seemed like they were off in a hurry, so he quickly checked their names. The one in green was a Blade Brandier by the name of Silabus, the other was an Adept Rogue by the name of... Haseo? Jikan dismissed the thought; The Terror of Death had pitch-black and spiky armor, with red eyes. Clearly, this wasn't the guy he was thinking of.

It was a small walk to the Guild shops, where he found Sylph browsing a Guild's shop, and Serrara having a conversation with the PC named Silabus. She saw Jikan in the corner of her eye and waved him out. He walked over and Silabus greeted him with a handshake.

"So, you're Mr. Jikan?" the Brandier asked politely.

"Uh, yeah. I came to speak with the Guild Master of Canard." The Adept Rogue confirmed.

"Yeah Silabus, this guy was the one that saved us from a PKer!" Serrara said excitedly. "But he still hasn't agreed to hang out with us." She growled.

Silabus laughed. "Well, you'll get to him. Haseo, the Guild Master, is running an errand; he'll be right back in a minute." He said, turning to Jikan. "I thought that you were a member of Kestrel, why did you stop the PKer?" He asked.

"Hm. I guess I used their philosophy to my own advantage. _This too, is part of The World._" Jikan quoted. "Besides, what reason did I need to stop it?" he asked.

"Eheh, I guess so." Silabus laughed weakly. There was an uncomfortable silence until the teenager clad in white armor returned. "Ah, Haseo, you're back." The Blade Brandier greeted.

"Yeah. So, what's the reason I got called out here as well?" he asked. Jikan sensed irritation in his voice.

"I asked Kuhn to get help from the Canard Guild Master." Jikan answered. "I haven't been on long enough yet to gauge Moon Tree, but if Kuhn trusted you enough, I wanted to drop these two off with you, give 'em a proper 'Welcome to The World' tutorial." He explained.

"So just another two players that should join?" Haseo asked. Silabus nodded in his direction. "If we're talking about Kuhn here, he said something about you joining as well." The Guild Master shrugged.

"Ah, sorry, but I won't be joining. I might have had enough with the guilds, so I'm quitting Kestrel as well." The Adept Rogue bowed.

"Huhn. So you're a PKK?" The Guild Master asked.

"Not usually. Well, I don't consider myself one, but since I just killed… Asta, was it? I don't know, I might get stuck with being hunted for awhile." Jikan sighed.

Haseo scratched his chin. "Well, I suppose we can look after these two." Silabus grinned when he saw his Guild Master finally compliant with the favor.

"Thanks. That's a few problems out of my hair." The Adept Rogue began to walk away, but he stopped in mid-turn. "Actually, there is something I wanted to ask you. This is just on a limb... But are you The Terror of Death?" he asked.

"Was. I've given that title up." He said sourly.

"Huh, who'd think that I would have met the ex-Terror o' Death." Jikan murmured.

"It wasn't that big of a thing, you know." Haseo said bitterly. A little chime of bells went off around Haseo, and he began looking through his menu, holding a hand up saying 'Give me a minute'. Haseo's eyes moved quickly, but when he finished, his face looked urgent. "I have to go out. Silabus, take care of these two." He said quickly and walked away briskly.

Silabus reached out for Haseo, but let his hand drop. "Haseo..."

"What's his problem?" Jikan asked. Silabus was silent for a moment, but turned around and smiled.

"He has some Guild stuff to do." Silabus explained, but his voice betrayed uncertainty. "Well, I'll take these two off your hands." He smiled.

"I have some stuff to do anyways. I've been meaning to visit Icolo lately, you know who the Sage Palace Emperor is?" he asked.

"That's him." The Blade Brandier pointed at the other Adept Rogue who just warped out of Mac Anu.

"Haseo is? I thought that Taihaku was! I even looked it up..." Jikan muttered.

"That's a bit outdated. Haseo won that match. Taihaku was infected by AIDA, but somehow AIDA left him." Silabus explained.

"Wait, Taihaku was infected?" The soon to be ex-Kestrel member looked shocked. He glanced at Sylph and Serrara, but they seemed to be looking around at the shop guilds.

"Haseo defeated him though, and since then he's been AIDA-free." Silabus joked.

"So that means Taihaku isn't a member of Icolo anymore than." The Adept Rogue was somewhat disappointed by this development. The fact that he had false information also somewhat annoyed him. He'd probably log off and fix that error as well. That also meant that there weren't any members of Icolo he had interest in anymore.

The Adept Rogue caught the Blade Brandier staring at him questioningly. "Well, somebody was Emperor of the Sage Palace before Taihaku, right? I more or less gave the title to the guy, thinking he'd be able to hold it as a good replacement." The train of thought shifted to the side. "Then again, now that I think about it, I wouldn't mind sparring with Haseo…" Jikan said absentmindedly. He looked up and gave the group of three his farewells, and walked off to take care of some other business.

* * *

Haseo was the last one to enter the bridge of Tartarga. The other Epitaphs and Zelkova were present as well, making his tardiness more pronounced. Zelkova waved at him happily before Pi gave him a look.

"Alright, you're finally here Haseo." Pi commented.

"Now, CC Corp just gave us an update. You all remember that when Cubia was defeated and AIDA was removed, the Lost Ones returned, correct?" Yata asked. Everyone, minus Zelkova who was staring into space, nodded.

"The Lost Ones were all back within a week. The news made a big thing about it too." Bo commented.

"Tatsumi Hori, also known as Asta in The World, is currently comatose." Yata said. "We searched the footage of the last area he was playing in, Delta: Unseeing, Sever, Gathering-"

"I recognize her!" Haseo blurted. Endrance, Yata, and Atoli stared at him. "  
She… or he… yeah, he. He was one of the two PCs that PKed me when I first started!" Haseo said, venom in his voice. "Finally getting just deserts." He said quiet enough so no one would hear. There was silence before Yata began again.

"As I was saying, we searched for the footage, but found that once Tatsumi reached the Beast Statue with the three other players and draws his weapon, the footage is too corrupted, as if it were plainly deleted." Yata announced. The Epitaphs ran through the new information through for awhile, letting the film play from various points.

"I don't recognize the player that was following them the whole time. They obviously knew he was there." Atoli observed. "He wasn't a member of Moon Tree, I can tell for sure." She added.

"That player is-" Yata began.

"That's Jikan, I know him. We were talking earlier today." Kuhn interrupted.

"I was just talking to him. I was actually just in front of him before I came here." Haseo stated. "He was with those two members as well." He added.

"Jikan sent a flash-mail to me that he stopped a double PK awhile back. Think it was Asta?" Kuhn asked.

"He doesn't look like he was about to PK someone. Look how distant he looks." Atoli said.

"He's tense and clearly watching the scene carefully." Endrance disagreed. He took a second before compromising. "But if you have doubts, it's always the best thing to ask the player himself. Is Jikan still online?" he asked.

"He is indeed. He's in Breg Epona, and he does not appear to be moving. Now's the time if any to question him." Pi confirmed.

Immediately, Kuhn raised his hand. "I'll go, he knows me, so I should be able to get his trust." Zelkova was the only player in the room who wasn't surprised at the sudden volunteer.

"It'll sound strange if I tell you what I think, but I'm going as well." Haseo said. Something about the situation just didn't add up to him. Something obviously happened in the area, but what?

"I'll follow Haseo." Endrance said.

Bo nodded and stood behind the Adept Rogue. "I'm coming with Brother as well." He said adamantly.

"Be careful you three, we can only assume the worst. Which is, this Jikan is actually an AIDA, or at least is possessed by AIDA." Pi warned. "As for you, Atoli, you can go do whatever it is you do. I have to go file some papers for CC Corp, so I'll log off." She said conclusively, and logged off immediately afterwords. Atoli touched her chest, but then walked off as well.

It was a couple minutes before Zelkova finally removed his eyes from the view. "You know, Jikan's been offline since the entire ordeal with AIDA started." Zelkova stated. "Going by that assumption, an AIDA fragment could have just found the PC inactive and festered in it." The Flick Reaper said, never taking his eyes off from the view from the window.

"But Jikan responded to me. It's obviously the real deal." Kuhn objected. Zelkova was silent as Haseo, Endrance, and Bo continued on.

"Yata." Zelkova said, catching his attention. "Ovan's Rebirth should have destroyed all of the AIDA." The Flick Reaper stated. "Cubia was even destroyed, ending the possibility of a Third Network Crisis. Yet look, AIDA looks to be back. How did AIDA survive? Was Cubia able to preserve it?" he pressed.

"What are you getting at?" Yata asked slowly.

"Has Fidchel spoken lately?" Zelkova asked.

Yata was silent. "I'm afraid not. I cannot connect with him since…" he trailed off.

"Interesting." The Flick Reaper said, his old personality returning. "Keep up the searches on the Serpent of Lore. I think I'll try my own methods for now…" he said, walking out of the bridge.

* * *

AN: Well? Four against one already! But dont worry, there isn't any extreme overkill here. And just what are Zelkova's _own methods_? Sound kindof shady...

Yes, Striatus does come back. I didn't just add the first chapter for kicks ya know. Hence the name, False Start, it's a bit like a prologue, I guess. This is where the story actually begins, and after this, it starts moving along quite nicely.

Don't forget to give a review.


	3. Striatus takes Flight

**AN:** So, how's that for some good chapter-a-day work for ya? So yeah, seems as if people are starting to pick up on this faster than I thought I would. Happy reading all. But don't forget to review, it helps me fix errors and just gives me some more drive.

Now, we have where the story picks up a lot of speed, and quite a few things are explained. Striatus gets some action too.

* * *

Breg Epona, the city of weapons, Jikan nicknamed it. If you find the right places, you could get some awesome views, and the place connected to the dungeons and fields with the highest monsters. Two birds with one stone.

Jikan currently found himself sitting on the edge of a back alleyway in that no one generally used – there were no shops here, nor any portals. This was used mostly only for loners or guild meetings. That's why when someone called out his name, out of all names, he was surprised.

"Jikan! I need a word with you!" a familiar voice called out. Jikan hoisted himself up and turned around. It was Kuhn, along with the Guild Master of Canard he met earlier, along with two others he had never seen before.

"Kuhn! What's goin' on?" Jikan greeted, catching up with the Steam Gunner. They shook hands and bumped fists, but even the Adept Rogue could tell that the two others were tense. "Seriously, what's going on?" he repeated, confused.

"Well… you see… it's about earlier." Kuhn said. Jikan looked at him strangely, but he didn't interrupt. "A player you were with earlier today fell into a coma."

"A coma?" Jikan scratched his head. He didn't like Asta anyways, but now he felt a bit guilty if the last thing the girl saw was some monster.

"Yeah. Turns out that the player fell unconscious shortly after you four reached the Beast Statue." Kuhn explained. Jikan thought about this before he realized something.

"Wait, how do you know about what happened?" the Adept Rogue asked.

"There's footage of the time you were in the area." Haseo spoke up. The two Adept Rogues looked at each other.

"So then you knew I PKKed her, and thought I was the suspicious one." Jikan mumbled. "But, the PC's body turned black and faded away; like it normally does once the player respawns in the root town."

"So you did kill Asta." The man in purple armor said biting his lip. "I think that Jikan's PC is being controlled by AIDA." He said.

"Endrance, you know that if he was an AIDA, he would have attacked us on sight," Kuhn defended. "Besides, I know it's him because…" Kuhn said, circling around Jikan and poking the white-robed Adept Rogue's head. "…He gets annoyed when I do this!" The steam gunner laughed, annoying the Adept Rogue to the point to shove him off.

"_AIDA draw Epitaphs, and Epitaphs draw AIDA._" The young boy said. His first line, and Jikan stared at him as if he were an alien.

"What's that you say?" he asked.

Haseo sighed. "You see Endrance? It could be just a complete coincidence. Ovan did take care of AIDA after all."

Jikan finally caught onto what they were saying. "If I was the virus, and I just killed a player, then why would I leave the two others, who were even weaker than Asta, untouched?" the Adept Rogue proposed.

"To throw us off." Endrance simply said. Jikan growled at the quick response.

"Look, Kuhn, you know me. And you know that I've been off since the entire AIDA thing started!" he directing everything on the Steam Gunner. "I can't be infected!" he said, feeling triumphant. Jikan suddenly got the feeling of Déjà vu, but he ignored it.

"I… think that's a good point." The young boy commented. Endrance glanced at the boy, and then returned his gaze at Jikan.

"Look, how about we get this all over with and just get Pi here. Or bring him to _that_ place." Haseo entered for good measure.

"Hey, whatever clears my name." The Adept Rogue nodded. He looked at Endrance, whose eyes never stopped watching him. "And dude, you need to take a chill pill." He added.

All but Endrance started their way back to Tartarga, with him staring after Jikan quietly. This puzzled the man, how could the others not feel the aura around the PC? Was he, The Temptress, the only Epitaph that could sense something amiss with him? He shook his head, when they took him to Net Slum Tartarga, they would see him for what he is.

* * *

The group of five reached the bridge, and immediately Yata and Pi began to scold the one responsible for the idea. Jikan stood in the back of the room uncomfortable, wary that the next one to be attacked could be him.

"Haseo, you should have known that you just don't take random players to Tartarga! Especially if the possibility of him being an AIDA was high!" Pi was yelling.

"We were having some… disagreements." Endrance merely said.

"Pi." Yata waved his hand, in an attempt to silence the arguing. "What's done is done. There is a simple way to determine if Jikan is an AIDA. Kuhn, why don't you summon Magus?" he asked.

"M-Magus? What purpose would…?" he asked. Jikan looked as confused as Kuhn.

"If he can see Magus, then that means he either is, or is possessed by, AIDA." Yata said simply.

"Fine." Kuhn said, getting into his stance while a yellow pattern of markings appeared over his body. "And now…Come on, my MAGUS!" he shouted as a burst of yellow washed over everything. A flash went off, and Jikan had to cover his eyes.

When the flash died off, he found himself in a surreal area. The place before had simply vanished into nothing. There was a light line all across the horizon… and were those planets in the background? Finally, Jikan's attention rested on an orb of green. Something was resting inside of it, but the light still hadn't died down enough yet.

The light surrounding whatever was in the orb burst, and it revealed to be a large, green monster. It had long arms, a white mask fixed to his head, and a tail double its main body's size that had leaf-life extensions on it. Jikan could make out Kuhn's silhouette inside of the monster, and panicked. With that, black dots burst out of the Adept Rogue's body, and he stumbled to the ground in pain.

The rest of the group stared at Jikan's PC in both worry and concern. Kuhn lifted an arm out to swipe away the AIDA dots, but it formed a barrier.

"That's AIDA!" Magus exclaimed.

"This should be enough for Magus and Kuhn to handle, but Endrance, Haseo, you two summon your Avatars as well!" Yata commanded from a distance.

Haseo didn't need to be told twice, he clutched his head and a red pattern started to glow around his PC. Endrance took no stance as a purple pattern glowed around his PC as well. The two called out the names of their monsters, but Jikan only saw their mouths move. In a red and purple flash, a white monster, smaller than the monster which had taken Kuhn's spot, seemingly made of several weapons floated next to another very large monster shaped like a red rose with a fox or cat on the top. The two moved to the back, allowing the monster they called Magus in front.

"Jikan, please, tell me that you are in control here!" Magus shouted out. Jikan was too dizzied by pain and fear to reply to Kuhn, and instead was completely encased in a black AIDA barrier.

Pain was spreading in his head like fire, as he recalled things during the blank from the day before. The man with purple wings, and Striatus came back to him. Suddenly, the whole situation made sense to him again. He tried to withdraw the black dots, but found that he couldn't. Why was it that he forgot everything?

_I gave you a choice. If these Epitaphs had not intervened in this matter, than you could have continued your way of life without the memories._ Striatus' voice said in his mind. _But now since they've deemed you an enemy, you have to fight back, or you'll become a Lost One. Come, I can protect you from them._ Jikan shook his head; he didn't want to fight his friend. _No! There has to be another way. But… we have to save Kuhn from that monster! _The Adept Rogue vowed. _Then summon my power!_ Striatus screeched.

"Come! Striatus!" Jikan yelled through the barrier. It faded away, but in its place, a large, cyan colored hawk with twisted horns on its head appeared. Jikan was curled up in fetal position in the chest of the AIDA hawk.

"What is that? I haven't seen an AIDA like that before!" Pi exclaimed.

"Kuhn! I'll save you!" The hawk screeched, and shot into the air. Magus sent a pulse of data through the net and followed in pursuit. Green beams of light flashed through the air, nearly clipping the virus, but it dodged at the last second. Striatus halted immediately and turned around, sending larges bolts crashing down around Magus, one hitting his shoulder.

"Is this AIDA controlling him? Like that Victorian did with Sakaki?" Haseo asked Yata. The Macabre Dancer shrugged his shoulders and brought several screens of data up.

"No, actually." Yata announced. "The PC Jikan seems to be controlling it, like how we can control the Avatars." He paused. "That means he's being influenced by AIDA." He concluded.

In the space above them, the two monsters continued to duke it out. Striatus flapped its wings and a solid pulse of air infused with black dots came smashing into Magus. It didn't seem to effect him that much, so the hawk continued to send wave after wave of the pulses of air. However, Magus set up a barrier, and the pulses stopped.

"Come on Jikan, it's me, Kuhn!" Magus yelled out. "I'm not in any trouble here! Come on, you have to come out of this!" he said, pausing the battle.

"But… you're trying to kill me… to kill Striatus… he says that you are enemies!" the hawk shrieked, but it stopped in its tracks. _He's lying to you! It's that monster; he wants to separate us! He thinks that all AIDA are evil! _Striatus relayed his message into Jikan's mind.

"Its influence was stronger than I thought." Magus said, crossing its arms. "Look, we can explain everything if you just put away that power, at least do that!" it called out.

The hawk cocked its head, but slowly it descended to the level of the others. Magus followed, and the two stared at each other.

"_All AIDA are evil? Is that what you really think?_" Striatus asked directly. Jikan, who was still in fetal position, was covered in a small black orb. "_We have been working on setting the AI Aura free! Yet you dare impose on the threshold AIDA should cross to expand on a new level to protect her! I shall not allow that to happen!_" the hawk screeched.

Suddenly, the hawk was serious and made a complex maneuver that outsmarted Magus, and the AIDA sent a full force of bolts directly in front of the Avatar. The "Protect Break" alert appeared, but as soon as Striatus expanded its wings, Skeith and Macha were blocking the path.

"Jikan-" Skeith began

"_I am Striatu-_" the hawk interrupted.

"We're protecting Aura too!" Haseo interrupted the interruption.

Suddenly, Striatus paused. The hawk AIDA considered the response, and summoned a post of AIDA and clutched it while tucking in its wings. Skeith lowered its scythe and Macha lowered his arms, the roses surrounding its head closing.

"The Epitaphs, the Avatars! They're the Eight Phases of Morganna!" Yata said from below. "Morganna originally made the Phases to examine human behavior, but after time, they were sent to destroy Aura." He started. Striatus was about to interject, but Yata stopped it. "But when they recreated The World, the Phases went rogue with Morganna destroyed. Now they help protect Aura! We aren't a threat to you!" Yata roared.

"…" Striatus seemed to register what the man was saying. "_The AIDA you knew was not all destroyed. Malicious fragments survived the Rebirth. Several of us that were protecting Aura were lost when the Rebirth occurred._" Striatus explained. "_You claim that you are here to protect Aura?_" it asked.

"We are!" Pi nodded.

"_So then Corbenik's Rebirth was not intended to destroy Aura… It would seem that we are at fault._" The hawk sighed. "_Forgive our rudeness. After Cubia was destroyed, we ventured out, removing the fragments of AIDA that were returning. Take this boy, for instance. Back one of your years ago; the malicious AIDA infected this PC. One of Aura's Knights sensed this, and fractured it. _

"_We reintegrated ourselves with this fragment, and I became one with the PC. This is how we will fix our mother Aura."_

"How is Aura your mother?" Skeith asked. "I mean… you are a virus. No offence." He added.

"_You are just like this boy Hiraku, and his politeness, although how meaningless it is. You see, when the creators of The World recreated it, they inhibited her powers as much as possible._

"_From her void, we were created and evolved. Eventually, a different AIDA appeared, one that harbored hatred against The World for shackling Aura. It caused several humans to fall comatose, and converted several peaceful AIDA into its way of thinking, then multiplied out of control. You know that fragment as… Tri-Edge. I recall that you, the bearer of Skeith, to have hunted it._" Striatus said. Skeith nodded.

At this point, it was clear that the battle was over, and the three Epitaphs reverted back into their PCs. The black barrier around Jikan wore off, but inside he was still asleep.

"So that's why the Rebirth was only able to effectively destroy the aggressive AIDA. That was what we were always fighting against, and Ovan probably was only able to create a vaccine to destroy only the ones he knew about." Pi thought aloud.

"_Correct. And now, we've been closer than ever to unlocking the shackles that bind our mother's fullest power. But with more and more players returning with infected PC's, our progress has been stopped._" Striatus explained. "_For some reason, Mother can only be restored once the corrupted AIDA have been deleted. We have our theories of why, but that shall remain unsaid for now._" The hawk sighed once more.

"Wha… What happened?" Jikan asked groggily. The hawk was fading away quickly now, and the Avatar Space vanished. The bridge reappeared, and all of the players looked at Jikan. "Where did those monsters go? Where did-"

"Take it easy, bro." Kuhn said, grabbing his shoulders. "Don't worry, I'll just give an email explaining things to you." Jikan's knees gave out, and Kuhn dropped to his knees as well. "You should log out and get some rest." He advised.

"Yes, we have some things we'll need to discuss later." Yata said.

Jikan nodded and brought up his menu, but found that the 'Log Off' option disappeared. He scrolled through the list several times before Pi gave him a curious look. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"I… I can't log off? But… when I lost my memory, I could again!" Jikan exclaimed. _When your PC Heir to Air was data drained by Aura's Knight, You were sent into The World's abyss. Since your old account, the one you're playing as now, was still in The World; it automatically came back to you. That's when we met. I was able to suppress your memories, which allowed you to be able to regain consciousness and return your ability to log out. Now that your body has 'remembered' the damage it was dealt, it has gone back to being a Lost One._ Striatus explained. All of this information that Striatus gave him was said in a split-second, so although it felt like a couple minutes, not a second had passed.

"Striatus's work maybe?" Pi asked.

"No… It was… a strange PC… Striatus refers to it as one of Aura's Knights…" Jikan mumbled.

"Azure Kite?" Haseo asked. "He wears a little red costume? Has a hat?" he started describing him. "Oh, he's a twin blade and-"

Jikan shook his head and Kuhn finally let go of him. "No, it was a Blade Brandier. He had these purple wings… looked like lightning." He said.

"Balmung." Yata brought a few screens up with a picture of him. "This is the Azure Knight, right?" The Macabre Dancer asked.

For a while, the young boy, Bo, had simply been standing and suddenly seemed squeamish. "I hate to leave you all, but I have to go. Bye Haseo." He said, and stared at Jikan sheepishly before logging off.

Endrance, losing interest in Jikan, walked up to Haseo. "Come, Haseo, let's go." He proposed. Haseo diverted his eyes.

"I… Have to log off too. It is getting pretty late, and Atoli wanted me to talk with her." The Adept Rogue took a step back and logged off as well. Endrance looked disappointed, but in the end, he simply walked out of the room, giving Jikan an undecipherable stare.

Only Kuhn, Jikan, Yata, and Pi remained in the room now. Several screen shots of Azure Balmung were floating in the air. Jikan nodded to Yata's question, and proceeded to firmly sit down.

"And of course, right when we come across the right guy, Haseo leaves. Can you get contact with Azure Kite?" Pi asked.

"Remember that he's an irregularity. If anything, one of the three will meet up with Haseo or Jikan." Yata dismissed the subject. "Which brings me to the next thing. Pi, I'd like you to go file a report about Jikan and the situation. But… Leave the bit about Striatus out. Just say we've neutralized a small bug." Yata said. Pi smiled, she knew that he was planning things out already. She logged off, and Kuhn finally sighed.

"Well, now since you can't log off, where will you sleep then? Or do you even need sleep?" Kuhn asked.

Jikan nodded, even though this was a game, he was fairly tired. _You can sleep for now, but there are more effective ways of recovering your energy. Next time you get tired, we should data drain an outer dungeon._ Striatus said. "What about an… Outer Dungeon?" Jikan asked. He wasn't even certain what it was, but Kuhn and Yata knew.

"You'll need Haseo's help for that. But since I have work to do, I must log off as well, unfortunately." Yata said. He closed the menus before nodded at the two of them and logged off.

"Well, I should probably leave too. Don't worry about accidentally being seen here; as you've seen before we got here, it's only AI's that inhabit this place. Anyways, I gotta go, so I'll see you sometime tomorrow." Kuhn said before bumping fists with the weary Jikan. He logged off, and left Jikan to himself.

He laid down on the ground and tried to sort through all of the information he learned that day. He groaned, but eventually, he slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

**AN:** How's that? That gives quite a bit to show what future events might consist of... *cough*war*cough* Also, now's the time when minor things are going to start being introduced.

You know, I really want Haseo to spar against Jikan... not using Skeith or Striatus, of course.


	4. Three's a crowd, but

**AN:** I realized that I didn't describe Yata or Pi when they first entered this little story, so I thought about changing their introduction slightly, but I figured that in the long run, we all know our favourite busty idol Pi and our half-naked leader Yata. Seriously, I disregarded his appearance beforehand, but now that I was forced to look at Yata's PC... well, let's just say that Wiseman looked freakin epic.

Now, onto... now. :D Striatus' story is explained, Asta is freed from her... his... ugh, what do I call that damn person? Those people are always annoying, genderbending and breaking the fourth wall and all... anyways, Asta recovers from the accidental coma _it_ endured, although whether or not Asta will be a big part again is debatable. Any Asta fans anyone?

And considering the name of the chapter, the first multi-AIDA battle the Infinity Eight have to fight turns out to be rather against their odds. However, you know the good guys rule. . Oh, Ovan makes his first of many appearances, as we all know Ovan deserves a lot of screen time, and as being an Epitaph, deserves his role as such. But actually getting him into the story might be a bit harder than I thought. But it shall be done.

* * *

Jikan lazily stood up to his feet after he woke up in The World. After finally convincing himself that none of this was actually just a dream, he noticed that Tartarga was again no longer empty. A young, horned boy in white, Japanese-styled robes with a fan tied to his back sat in the opposite end of the room.

"Good morning, Jikan." The boy greeted. Jikan rubbed his head and walked over to the boy.

"You weren't here yesterday… so who are you?" he asked groggily.

"I'm Zelkova. I'm the Guild Master of Moon Tree too." He said cheerily.

"Right, right. And what's the leader of Moon Tree doing in Project G.U.'s Home?" Jikan asked.

The Flick Reaper touched his chin thoughtfully. "It's a bit complicated." He said.

"Well, it's not like we're pressed for time, right?" the Adept Rogue pointed out.

Zelkova nodded. "Well, technically this place isn't the Headquarters of G.U. at all. This is the Net Slum, an outside server that rogue AI's inhabit. I can't exactly tell you how I found it though. But I take it that you know that Moon Tree's Home has been disconnected?" he asked.

Jikan more or less nodded. "I only knew that the members never went to their Home. Never knew why, but I have to be honest, I didn't really care. I thought that the place became overrun by enemies. Like, perhaps you made a boss too powerful or something." He said.

"Spawning enemies within the Home?" Zelkova questioned. "I never took the initiative to do that, Moon Tree's a peaceful guild. You're part of Gabi's Kestrel, so you thought that most big Guilds can do that type of thing, right? Well, it's a special ability that Gabi was given to use within his Home." The Flick Reaper explained. "But…"

Jikan looked at Zelkova and cocked his head. "But…?"

"I actually have some more important things to discuss with you, if you wouldn't mind?" He said politely.

Jikan sighed, but there was nothing for him to do anyways. He'd tell him as much as he himself knew. "Sure, hit me."

Zelkova was suddenly serious. "Asta is still comatose. I heard from Yata that you weren't intentionally infecting the players, but can you remove the infection?" he asked.

_I could, if that's causing problems. In your anger, you used my power on accident and infected the PC Asta similar to how the Tri-Edge phenomenon. Now that you know how to use my power, it's as simple as just willing the infection to be removed_. Striatus hummed in Jikan's thoughts. "Striatus says that it's more than possible, I just have to… wish it away?" he said uncertain.

"Wish it away?" Zelkova repeated, confused. This wasn't something he expected. AIDA was able to willingly control who went comatose and who wouldn't? This changed a few things.

Jikan concentrated for a second, and then looked up at Zelkova. "Umm… I don't know if I just did anything or not… but… I kind of just… you know, this is really corny." Jikan said irately. _Whether or not one falls into a coma depends on the intents on the one infecting. Ill will infects, good will purifies._ Striatus explained.

Zelkova seemed to freeze for a second, but then he snapped out of it. "Well well, you actually did it." He smiled. Jikan scratched his head and looked away.

"Okay, so the next thing I want to get at… is actually a question for the AIDA inside of you, Striatus." He said.

Jikan let control of his PC to Striatus, and with it a constant trio of black dots floated around the body. Along with the swap, Jikan's left eye turned cyan and three black dots wavered over his head. "_What is it?_"

Zelkova seemed startled of the quick possession, but nevertheless regained his composure. "I watched your fight with Magus. How is it that you have the same abilities as the Avatars to data drain?"

"_It is a right given to us when Aura determined that her protectors needed more power to combat the Tri-Edge faction. The AIDA with more power was granted the right of the power of data drain. She was preparing for the future._" The AIDA explained.

"How much of the AIDA that we're used to are left?" the Flick Reaper asked.

"_To be truthful, their numbers are still without number. All that we know is that our side, being mostly immune to the Rebirth, has a greater number than them._" Striatus nodded.

"Wait a minute. The sheer amount of AIDA left still cannot be calculated?" Zelkova exclaimed, clearly beyond shock.

"_Correct. However, most of that portion are inactive and will remain that way for some time. Resetting the Internet can only do so much. A small portion of our strongest has been too stunned by the reset to recover in good time. Several of our anchors in The World, like Terrapene could not endure the reset because of their sheer size._" Striatus exemplified.

"What would it take to delete them and restore Aura?" Zelkova asked urgently. Striatus, using Jikan's PC, stretched his arms and put his hand to his chin.

"_All eight Morganna Factors united, Cubia restored to a certain point, and the Twilight Bracelet recovered."_ The AI said bluntly._ "Our strongest leaders must be restored, Vulpes, Typus, and Houttuynia."_ It added._ "Last but not least, Morganna must be returned to The World and re-integrated into Aura_."

"Morganna… It's been a long time since I've heard that name." Yata said, walking in. Both Striatus' and Zelkova's attention snapped to him. "It was back in The World, R:1" he commented, taking his spot by the Serpent of Lore. "I was under the impression that Aura had already acquired Morganna's data. I was… out of action by the time the two became one, but I was informed later." The Macabre Dancer said.

"_The two did become one. However, when the Rebirth hit Aura, she was weakened even further than usual. When this occurred, Morganna took the opportunity and escaped from the weakened AI._

_"Aura must become one with Morganna again to become the ultimate AI again. That is a crucial step we must accomplish. After that, we can focus on the smaller details._" Striatus explained.

"I've never heard of Cubia being a small detail before." Yata said, almost laughing at the thought. "And you mentioned the Twilight Bracelet. Kite had that item, and it allowed him to data drain. Why do you, who can already data drain, need that item?" Yata questioned.

"_It is a piece of_ Aura." Jikan found himself saying. Striatus' possession seemed to end, causing him to revert back to normal. "Ugh, remind myself not to do that again." Jikan said, shaking his head. _I grow tired of speaking. I'll just implant your body with the information_. Striatus sighed. "I'm pretty hungry, any one else care for… oh yeah, can't log out." Jikan reminded himself.

"It is a weekend, so perhaps Haseo will be online soon enough. It's about 7:30 in the morning. Pi should be on in a half hour, her shift begins at 7:45, but her schedule for today shows that it's monitoring… you." Yata said.

"I can leave, right? It'd be really droll to just… I don't know; lounge around here without anything to do." Jikan complained. He put his arms behind his head and waited for a reply. A slight movement beyond the bridge caught his attention, and he snapped his head to investigate.

"Is something the matter, Jikan?" Zelkova asked.

"… No… I just… Thought I saw something. It's nothing. So can I stretch my legs a bit or what?" Jikan asked, returning to his former thoughts.

"If you feel like it. Just don't get into trouble." Yata nodded.

Jikan was about to shoot straight out of the bridge when he realized something. Turning back around, he asked, "If right now I'm nothing more than data, why the hell am I hungry?"

"I… can't explain that. Your real body is currently held in a hospital… But we're not certain where that is yet. The news had it that a young male was found unconscious, and was moved to a local hospital." Zelkova announced. "They should be taking care of your body there, but if even your mind is disconnected from your body…" Zelkova thought aloud.

"I'm not that hungry yet, so I think I'll just blow it off for now. I'll find some way to-"

"No. The fact that you hunger, even in The World, isn't good. Not even Tsukasa hungered when he was here, so that means something even more different is wrong with you." Yata rejected the idea.

"I don't think Tsukasa had AIDA inside of him." Jikan smirked and took off out of the bridge.

Finally free of the prison-like bridge, Jikan reached the Chaos Gate and transferred over to Lumina Cloth. He needed to take his mind off things, and watching some fights wouldn't hurt.

* * *

Ovan's consciousness had been drifting in the Sea of Data. In his scattered perspective, it was an incredibly dark place, but it wasn't really like a 'Sea' per say. It was more like several mountains of shifting fragments of corroding data. The entire Sea probably spanned across Oblivion too, the sheer size of it was that large.

Several times throughout his time here, he saw washed up pieces of AIDA fragments, and even rarer on occasion, was a whole AIDA, usually a Gate Keeper or an Anna, that had been consumed by it and were slowly being dissolved into it's binary codes.

Ovan had encountered Aura here, when he still had the strength to move in the Sea. She had moved his body farther than he could ever move in there, and set his body to float in front of a seemingly random door that was ripped right out of a church. It seemed to have been a replica of the Hulle Granz Cathedral. Inside it though, was probably a completely different place guarded by who knows what, and there was probably another portal you'd have to enter to reach Aura.

Only twice had a functioning AIDA came to the building that Ovan's consciousness guarded. Both of them were Victorian types, and both had come trying to pass through the door. Each time he had been able to hold off the AIDA, but the last time had sent him spiraling out of control and he had been set adrift again, no longer bound by the gravity of the Cathedral until Aura's Knights ventured forth and set him back.

He didn't have a problem with this; he had served his purpose. Now, he also knew that AIDA remained, confirming the fact through his battles, but he had also expected that. He had shot blindly in the dark, and he struck gold. His body would have to remain comatose, and he'd worry many of his friends, especially Shino, but here, like this, he was serving an even greater purpose.

True, he sometimes grew bored due to no anomalies appearing, but it didn't matter, that only proved that his job safe-guarding Aura was working. In fact, he didn't want to fight AIDA, as Corbenik was no longer residing inside of him. Aura had taken it from his data, which was, despite what Ovan thought it would be, a painless process, as in his current state, he could deal as much damage as Corbenik could, until Ovan reawakened that is. Corbenik also seemed to have wanted to serve Aura as best as it could, and the two parted voluntarily, aware that they would be back in each others hands soon enough.

"Aina…" the faded consciousness managed to mutter.

* * *

Takumi Hino had been searching for the exact whereabouts of Jikan's real life body, Hiraku Masaru. Even online as Yata, Takumi had not managed to find out anything, which confounded the man. He had his coworker, Reiko Saeki use her people skills to scour the area around Chiba for the comatose boy.

It would be easy, in theory. Hiraku was suffering nearly the same experience as the Lost Ones, and before Takumi was alerted to Jikan's presence, he had read somewhere that a boy had fallen ill and went into a coma. However, every time the young man nearly made a lead, it vanished. The potential lead either vanished, or it was gone the next second.

Takumi was aware that the AIDA Striatus was present within Jikan, and therefore, since it was apparently a different kind, might as well be manipulating the data to throw off people with unspeakable intentions from Hiraku. But that would only impede his progress temporarily; while Takumi was generally too busy with work that CC Corp gave him, Reiko was his under his supervision and he generally had her do field work with cases like this.

Takumi diverted his attention back to his PC in The World, and through Yata's eyes he saw that even the Serpent of Lore had troubles finding Hiraku with Striatus' intervention. Inside The World was a different matter, naturally, it was easy to find the infected player; Jikan was currently in Lumina Cloth, in the stands watching a couple matches take place.

Yata's attention was drawn to something strange surrounding Jikan. In his immediate aura, he seemed fine; but several black dots, AIDA, the administrator determined, were spread amongst the fans. Yata waved his hand and several more screens appeared in the space around Yata. Each picture was different, but all had the same content: roaring spectators empowered with energy with the presence of AIDA lurking around them all.

Takumi flung off his FMD and found his hands shaking. An AIDA infection this powerful and the Serpent of Lore hadn't managed to alert him to it? Just what was going on in Lumina Cloth? Takumi dialed a number on his phone next to him and was connected to Reiko.

"Hello?" the familiar voice asked.

"Reiko, log on to Pi ASAP. A huge AIDA infection is present in Lumina Cloth. It hasn't done anything yet, but I mean, the stands of the Arena are thick with AIDA, but for some reason or another, the players there cannot see it." Takumi quickly explained.

"What? I'm on it. Who else is on that can help?" Pi asked, suddenly her voice was coming out in gasps, and the sound of quick footsteps meant that she was running.

"Jikan's in the Arena as we speak. Kuhn, Atoli, and Sakubo are offline, but Haseo and Endrance are both on. I'll get them to go to the Arena ASAP as well, but we need everyone." Yata said, and he heard a click on his phone. Nodding to no one, he alerted both Endrance and Haseo to the AIDA presence.

* * *

Jikan could feel that he was getting hungrier with passing time. Striatus warned him at some point that he should go to a field so that he could explain a few things to him, but Jikan disregarded the feeling. He was still adamant that Tsukasa, regardless of AIDA or not, didn't die of hunger, so nothing bad would happen to him. After that, Striatus went silent, so Jikan figured that he realized he was right.

As the matches progressed, he began to feel a presence surrounding the field. An urgent feeling, probably coming from Striatus welled up inside of him, but he saw nothing amiss.

The only thing, which he found odd, was the reaction to rather weak battles taking place in the field. Whenever a rather boring fight ended, the response from the stands was great, with cheering and roaring to deafen someone if the stand's programming to lessen the sound didn't work.

A Flash-mail from Yata popped up and Jikan started to read it. _AIDA is probably attacking, or is going to attack Lumina Cloth. Haseo, Endrance, report to the Arena. Jikan, prepare for anything. Pi is on her way. I've started the procedure of an emergency exit. Remain in the stands, or warp to the field. Give the guards and guard NPCs this code that's attached._ the Flash-mail read.

Jikan looked at his surroundings and found that several NPCs had begun clearing out large sections of the stands. Some of the players looked annoyed that they couldn't stay, but nevertheless, they followed directions and left. Eventually, the NPCs reached him and tried to get him to warp out of the stands. He flashed the code to the guards, which apparently gave him the power of a temporary administrator, and he found himself instantly warped to the field. A split-second later, and Endrance was in the stage as well.

"Endrance! Jeez, can you believe this? AIDA actually is attacking again!" Jikan exclaimed. He simply looked at Jikan with thinly veiled mistrust.

Haseo finally warped to the field too, and the three of them stared at each other before they moved back to back. "What's going on?" The Adept Rogue asked.

"I guess there's a lot of AIDA either already here, or on it's way." Jikan said, shifting his eyes left to right, keeping a constant scan of the area.

Suddenly, the criminals of the crisis appeared at last, four large, golden Victorian AIDA fragments appeared out of a portal from the net. All four were then surrounded by a small group of three Anna each, and the entire group surrounded them in a second.

"Come on, I'm right here…" Haseo muttered, preparing his stance to release his Avatar.

Endrance did likewise, seemingly hugging himself. "Ugh… Macha!" Endrance called out.

In but a few seconds, the small, white Avatar composed of multiple weapons descended to the field next to the large, rose-like Avatar with the cat-like torso. Avatar Space replaced the Arena, and Striatus burst free in a torrent of black dots. The cyan, white, and red allies faced each other for merely a second, and then returned to their enemies.

All of the AIDA fragments fired off simple bolts of energy, the Victorian's being the ones who made evading it all difficult to accomplish. Macha, being the largest Avatar, had to resort to using the illusionary petals to find safety.

Haseo sent waves of his scythe flying into the enemies, but the AIDA that had gathered made both defending and attacking, as Skeith soon realized, very difficult. The torrent of bullets stopped, and Striatus only caught a glimpse of the situation but knew what to do. Increasing its size three-fold, the enlarged hawk covered both Skeith and Macha with its wings. The next second, all of the AIDA fired off their deadly lasers, the Victorians using their Excellent Rays and Anna using their Kobold Lasers. Fortunately, Striatus' wings held the attack.

When the wings didn't release the two Avatars, Macha tried to push out. "Why aren't you releasing us?" Macha asked, ice in her voice.

Striatus didn't answer, but instead shot its wings out, sending the very streams of energy shooting back out at AIDA. "_Happy now_?" it retorted.

Macha didn't wait for a reply, instead, she sent out dozens of roses into the air, all opening to reveal small orbs of energy within. The flowers took off to the AIDA and started to blast them with small bursts of energy.

Skeith took this opportunity and used his machine gun and blasted at two groups of AIDA at once. The Victorian behind the three, however, recovered and fired an Elegant Orb at the Avatar.

The white Avatar however, dodged it at the last second and slashed at it a couple times, sending the burst back at the Victorian.

"Damn it, we're not making much progress here!" Skeith cursed. He sent a chakram flying into an Anna, which stunned it, and Skeith prepared a data drain only to lose its stance as another Anna fired a Kobold laser at it.

"_Don't lose focus, Pi should be here, and that might grant us a nice advantage!_" Striatus called out, sending a solid burst of black dots smashing into a Victorian.

Macha summoned several blades of energy in her hands, and sent the discs smashing into several Anna fragments, effectively making three of the twelve hit 'Protect Break' status. The same thought process must have traveled throughout the entire group of Anna, as they all burst into random movements traveling both above and below the Avatars, sending several energy bullets their way.

Macha, Skeith, and Striatus danced between the bullets, but Striatus, with his large size, was hit the most. The Victorians fired several Excellent Rays at the group of three, and the situation was suddenly not in the small group's favor.

Jikan, within Striatus' body, took a brief pause and mulled tactics over in his head. A thought had brought itself to his attention, if he could pull off another AIDA pulse, the two Avatars he fought with could be able to data drain the small, purple AIDA fragments that they called Anna, and effectively make their battle easier. However, the two had to be within his wings again, and who knows how much damage he'd take charging a pulse powerful enough to stun all four Victorians?

_You aren't used to my powers yet. This may be our second time sharing this form, but you lack the skills still. If you wish, I can take over and give those viruses a taste of what it means to be a true AIDA._ Striatus hummed in Jikan's head. _Not yet, Pi should almost be here, and it could give us an advantage over him! Besides, I have a plan of my own…_ Jikan thought back to the AIDA.

"_Skeith, Macha, prepare to data drain a couple of these!_" Striatus ordered. The two Avatars had no hesitation and flew over and hid in Jikan's large wings. In the small gap that he could see inside, the two had their data draining panels out, and were waiting for my wings to release them. _Good, now… just… don't do anything powerful, and I should be able to remove a few of these damn things for good._ Jikan thought.

His wings started to glow even brighter as the AIDA fragments continued to pummel him with Kobold Bullets and Excellent Rays. Every hit the hawk could feel throughout his body, but when he sensed that the pulse was ready, he flashed black, and spread out his wings, sending a violent burst of black energy smashing into all of their enemies. A Victorian, along with several more Anna reached the 'Protect Break' status, and the two Avatars went to work, sending several orbs of energy smashing into the stunned AIDA and absorbed them. When the process was finished, the three were able to attack the remaining a few times before they recovered from the attack.

Now the odds were pushed in their favor, three Victorians remained with five of their Anna escorts. Even with the loss of their allies, however, the AIDA remained unfazed and continued their assault on the three GU members.

Skeith paused in midair, the battle had taken a momentary rest, and the tension was only waiting to snap again. It took him a second to notice what no one else had yet, the three remaining Victorians were charging Elegant Orbs, but ones on a larger scale than the one he had shot back earlier. By the time the white Avatar tried to warn the two others, the three Victorians fired them all at Macha, and her position in the middle of them, along with the speed of the Orbs, allowed only one option for the Avatar to consider: Charging into Macha to knock her out of the way.

That course of action was followed, and he managed to knock Macha out of her fatal position. However, even with the speed he had built up, the momentum was too great to evade the onslaught of Kobold Bullets that the Anna shot in succession. Macha wasn't the target of the bullets, so she used her Voice of Seduction, which had an immediate effect on the Anna. With the little AIDA delirious, the three focused on dividing their attention on the Victorian.

"Don't tell me I missed the party!" A woman's voice asked. Jikan realized that it was Pi, who had finally arrived, and her pink Avatar patterns were already showing. "Tarvos!" she called out, and with a ripple of pink energy, an Avatar that resembled a winged maiden descended, her legs were strapped together with white bindings that resembled leather cloth, her arms were bound with some sort of thorn covered ring, and a large spike was impaled in the center of her body. It didn't seem to pain her, but as for why there was a giant spike in her body, Jikan couldn't have figured out.

The Avatar glowed pink; a large orb of data appearing behind her, in the end of her spike where it rounded into a circle similar to a wand. She briefly pointed at Striatus, after which pink streams of code burst out of her and impaled the hawk, giving a mere second before red tendrils of data flowed along the pink data back to Tarvos. Striatus could immediately feel a boost to its energy as the AIDA's health was restored. The orb, which rested in the hollow spot of the wand, warped red, and Tarvos directed the edge of her spike towards a Victorian. Spreading out her wings, the pink Avatar yelled out "REVENGE CANNON!" and the orb instantly was absorbed into the spike and shot at the Victorian.

The orb hit with an explosion, stunning the weakened Anna with the mere force of it, and forcing a 'Protect Break' on the larger, golden AIDA. The Avatar wasn't quite done yet, her wings expanded outwards and red data panels appeared all over the wings, her body arched like a bow, and the spike formed a cannon. It charged briefly before it shot the vessel of data, which slammed into the Victorian and absorbed it.

Two Victorians down, two to go; seven Anna down, five more to finish off. Skeith charged a chakram with his scythe that he melted together with Macha's purple blade and sent it slashing into the remaining AIDA, taking direct control of the chakram to hit the final ones the initial sweep had missed. The attack had stunned all of them, leaving them open to 'Protect Break'. Striatus took off, dazzling the two Victorians with clever maneuvers and distracting them from the three Avatars so they could data drain the rest of the Anna fragments.

The three Avatars brought out their data drain cannons and charged them, bringing fury down on the broken Anna AIDA. With the weaker viruses eliminated, the three Avatars returned their attention to the remaining two Victorian AIDAs.

The two AIDA were starting to play a different game with most of their group annihilated, the two were falling back whenever their enemies approached them while sending a continuous barrage of energy shots shooting randomly in their direction. Now that they were clearly outnumbered and outmatched, the AIDA were trying to recalculate a viable attack tactic.

However, Jikan's body was failing him. Since the first Anna had been destroyed, the hunger had been completely replaced with weakness. When he had stunned all of the AIDA, his body nearly collapsed on itself, but Skeith and Macha had managed to become the public enemy. The most Jikan had been able to do to assist his allies was to distract the stronger AIDA from the Avatars while they finished off the weaker AIDA, once Pi arrived as Tarvos. Now, at the critical moment, his body fell apart and he reverted back to his regular PC form.

"Jikan!" Tarvos called out, distracted from the Victorian. Skeith and Macha however, made the battle a two on two, so with an unheard agreement, Tarvos reverted back to Pi and she rushed to Jikan's PC.

Pi checked his body, and sent a quick Flash-mail to Yata, even though he probably knew already. He was obviously still alive, but he wasn't moving. His eyes were blank, and whatever was keeping him together was purely replaced with Striatus' connections. A reply from Yata only frightened her. Jikan's PC is deteriorating from the over-use of Striatus. Apparently, if his PC here is destroyed, his body in the real world turns into a vegetable. He wont even have the second chance that Ovan did; he wont be able to survive in the Sea of Data.

The woman put her hands to her face as she thought as quickly as she could. A quick glance at the battle overhead revealed that another Victorian was defeated, and in that glimpse, the final Victorian broke the 'Protect Break' status. Unfortunately, Pi couldn't think of even a way to start helping him. If his PC was deteriorating, she could try to repair the damage, but The Avenger wasn't the Avatar for the job. If anyone could repair the damage, it would be Kuhn's Propagation, Magus.

The Avatar Space disappeared and Haseo rushed over to Jikan, Endrance taking his time to approach him. Haseo quickly scanned the PC, but the only thought that occurred to him was how similar this seemed when Shino became comatose. "GET OUT OF THE ARENA!" Yata's voice shouted throughout the air. The three others hesitated, the AIDA had just been defeated, but even if it was true that Jikan was down, they didn't see the need to urgently leave. Instead, they were forced to warp out of the Arena as Yata manipulated his power and pushed out of the area.

* * *

**AN:** twelve on four, hows that for odds? But you know, AIDA are only a small challenge to our heros, for those that've played the GU series, and have gone back to fight in Avatar Space just for fun, realized how easy these fights against the AIDA can become. So how about making the odds in AIDA's favor? Yeah, so it's a bit overkill, but AIDA vs AIDA gives an interesting twist.

Anyways, more Ovan to come, and now Aina will have her part, and boy, does she have quite a part to play. *deciphers his own chart* Which means, as soon as Aina's part comes in, Shino gets some airtime, and after that, we meet Terrapene... and I think an encounter with one of the Azure Knights will be called for. Will, that's enough of the 'On the next time... and possibly the time after that' segment. Review, review, and reread to absorb everything! Then... I dunno... *runs out of material*


	5. Rumors of the Past

**AN:** So, I've been going through this and wondering if we can add any of our older favourites... and for those that have read AI Buster, you'll be pleased to hear that Lycoris will be making an appearance, along with Zefie.

Seeing as we're still in the growing stages of everything, there probably wont be any large battles yet, as Ovan's and Aina's stories have to progress a little further, and Lycoris has to be further developed here. Also, the Azure Knights will get a bit of screen time too, but things are actually going much faster than I thought they will be going...

Now, if anyone notices something out of place, or has a question about a specific event, do review or private message me, I don't bite... hard, at least. : P

* * *

Pi took a second that she was back in Lumina Cloth. In a few frantic thoughts, she scurried back to the entrance of the Arena, but found that an error message popped up each time. She was confused, why was it suddenly locked? She tried to enter the stands, and found that she could still enter. When she warped back in, the graphics were completely glitched, large chunks of the data that formed the stands were either corroded or completely gone. The entire fighting stage of the Arena had vanished. The sky was black, and the sun had a glitched appearance that made it look like a dark red crescent moon. Haseo and Endrance appeared when the circlets of blue lights filtered them into the Arena.

"What happened in here?" Haseo asked.

Endrance scratched his head, scanning the area. "It looks as if the entire area was washed over by something. Where's Jikan?" he asked.

The three scanned over what was left of the Arena, until Pi pointed at something in the sky. "Over there! That has to be him!" she said. The two males followed the direction of her finger and found a blurred figure floating in the sky. Black and red lines of code was swirling around it, being absorbed into the body. When a stream of data was finished, small tendrils attacked a portion of the commentators stand, and pulled it out before it burst into numbers and symbols before rearranging it into long lines of code that were absorbed into the body of the figure.

Behind them, unnoticed so far, Yata warped in, as he viewed the situation in person. "The first-hand damage was greater than I thought it would be." The Prophet said, startling the other three Epitaphs.

"Yata! What happened here?" Haseo asked, quickly taking in everything again. "Is that Jikan up there?"

"Correct. That is his PC body, but his consciousness is dampened currently by Striatus' influence." Yata paused. "Jikan's body... Hiraku Masaru, is in a coma, as you recall. For some reason though, his PC is constantly deteriorating, I can only assume it's the presence of AIDA in it. Especially when Jikan uses his power and takes Striatus' form, his PC rapidly decays." he paused again, letting the information settle in the other players heads. "His body takes a similar action. While he's in his current condition, the more hunger he feels, the farther and farther away his mind falls from his body." he waved at Jikan's body in the air. "Of course, I don't mean _current_ current."

"What are you getting at here?" the Tribal Grappler asked, crossing her arms.

"As you can see, Striatus is data draining the area here in order to stabilize Jikan's PC. I cant even imagine what Hiraku is going through." Yata concluded.

The four Epitaphs looked at the destruction and slowly fading Arena. "Can this be repaired?" Endrance asked, staring at Jikan's black PC.

Yata nodded. "Magus has all of the potential to completely replace the data that was eaten away. In the mean time, Atoli can use Innis to make it seem as if nothing happened here for the moment." he explained. There was a pause in the conversation, so Yata proposed an idea. "Pi, you can log off now and continue looking for Hiraku. If anything, check the Chiba area. I remember the news article coming from there, and if any one is talking about a strange patient, try to confirm it." he ordered.

Pi nodded and warped out of the stands. Haseo continued to stare at Jikan's PC, realizing that at any moment it could attempt to data drain them as well. "So what do we do, just wait until he's stable again?" he asked.

"That's all we _can_ do. Still, we learned one thing out of this: Jikan's PC is deteriorating, and in order to restore itself, he needs to data drain pieces of network that can be replaced." The Macabre Dancer thought aloud. "It's not hard creating false servers, and with Kuhn and Magus' help, Jikan'll have a source to stay stabilized." he added. _But why is his PC deteriorating like so? AIDA before didn't make the PC's decay after pushing their players into a coma.

* * *

_

Aina had returned to The World after she began having dreams of her older brother Masato floating in space. In her dreams, he was incredibly injured, and he'd suddenly change into Ovan, in a black sea of shifting polygons. He neither moved nor spoke, but through his orange-shaded glasses, she could see one eye constantly staring at her, pleading with her sister to free him from whatever put him in gridlock there.

She shivered when she remembered the dream, and looked outside the window that was positioned next to her in her class room. The vision of her brother Masato flashed through her eyes and a couple tears welled up. She had long since given up on blaming Haseo and his friends for what happened with Ovan, but feeling of helplessness consumed her afterwards. Aina clutched her hands into fists when she remembered the fact that it was the man whom she had initially blamed for Masato's condition who was the only one that could save her brother.

If there was any solace to any of it, Aina was finally moving back to Japan. Her persistence had moved her mother to the point where even Masato, who wasn't on good terms with her mother, was the focal point in returning to Japan. She was returning in just under a week; her flight was actually in just two days, the next Monday. In the meantime, however, she had bought a portable FMD so she could play The World while she was on the go, mostly just to see if she could find anything about Ovan.

However, in her real life, she was busy with school, and now that she was transferring to Japan, she was spending a lot of time perfecting her Japanese again, managing the transfer papers, and spending last moments with the friends she made in Germany. However, this didn't make Aina lose touch with The World; she had heard when another player fell comatose. To complicate matters, the conditions were similar to Doll Syndrome, what she was thought to have for a long duration of time. Her mother had heard of this just earlier that day, and was starting to reconsider the trip. A factor the girl hadn't figured out yet was the fact that the player lived in the same area as Masato, and from what she had heard, even if through a few rumors around Chiba, was that they were both in the same hospital. Aina knew which hospital, naturally, and that was the Kameda Medical Center, which had grown rather prestigious since it's list of patients were victims of AIDA and since the virus had been destroyed, they were subsequently praised as helping bring the comatose back to reality.

Aina shook her head. _AIDA was destroyed by my brother, he made sure of it!_ she thought. _There's no way he would have purposefully left AIDA to sit around as the scourge of the Internet._ The young girl fumbled her hands through the pockets of her skirt and pulled out her portable FMD. Making sure she still had enough time in her lunch break, she put the FMD on and logged into The World.

In The World, Aina was a Shadow Warlock, but as she had been in a coma for a long duration of time, her character had not improved much, so whenever she was online, she was grinding experience with a few of her closest friends. She had managed to reach level 135, but in order to save her brother, Aina knew that she'd have to max out her level at the very least.

She noticed Haseo was online, and figured that since he had vowed to save her brother, she'd join him and leech off of the experience he gained when he ran through dungeons. She typed him a Flash-mail, reading: _Haseo, you remember your promise to save Ovan right? I want you to help my PC gain experience so that I can help find my brother. I'll let you pick the area, but it had better be Level 150, like you are, so this goes by faster._ She pressed send, and waited for his response.

Haseo was quick to reply. _Sorry Aina, not right now. Something's going on on my end, so I'll have to get back to you later._

Aina growled and typed back a response. _What do you mean? What's so important that it takes priority of finding and saving my brother?_ She tapped her fingers in annoyance.

Once again, Haseo didn't hesitate to reply. _Look, you know that I want to find Ovan just as much as you do, but we're taking care of something here. When I'm free, I'll try to explain what's going on._

Aina groaned in anger as she gave up on her brother's friend. His friend, Shino was a curious object that Ovan latched on, but Aina dismissed her. She was only infected with AIDA like herself, and fell comatose, effectively distracting Haseo from Ovan to her. _Whatever then, I don't need Haseo yet. I'll just train with my friends again and I'll prove that I can save Masato without his help._ She thought irrationally.

* * *

Ovan felt a change in the Sea of Data. Large masses of data were shifting more often than they should be, and more pieces of AIDA were washing up near him. Since they didn't pose a threat, Ovan couldn't move of his free will, but he observed the change nonetheless. Aura had not yet resurfaced from the cathedral she had hidden herself in, but Ovan knew that eventually she was going to have to move. Whatever was pushing this sheer mass of data within the Sea had to be of un-proportional strength, something of which even he hadn't considered appearing.

This was not the only subtle change that he had sensed. When he allowed his consciousness to sleep within the Sea, he was brought back to his real body, but not actually inside of it. It was more or less as if he were watching his body like he used to watch his PC Ovan. His body was still hooked up to chords of IV and heart monitors with a breathing apparatus, but he no longer shared his room alone. A boy, much to the same age Haseo would be was now lying in the same room as him, in the same sort of medical hook up he was in.

Earlier that morning when he had rested his mind, Masato became aware of the teenager next to him undergoing something similar to cardiac arrest. His heart monitor was glitching up and apparently the teenage boy went into shock directly after the heart attack. His nurses were unable to stop it, and within a quarter hour, the nurses had essentially raised their hands up in defeat. They had even tried to stop his heart to see if he would react to that, but his heart had immediately restarted. One of the nurses described it as a heart attack, stroke, and electrocution all at once.

Masato, however, wasn't able to lay the cause of the teenager's ailment down on any one source. He had seen for himself the capabilities of AIDA through his sister, but the boy exhibited different symptoms. His body even seemed to become aware of its surroundings, but it regarded everything it saw as something alien. The shrieks, however, were the most unnerving thing. Ovan shuddered at the memory, and he vowed to find out who the boy was. Considering that the boy was only half a room away, it wouldn't be difficult, but he couldn't travel to his body at the moment.

A huge shadow darkened most of the area as whatever was coming finally drew near. Ovan determined its size to be nearly the same as Cubia's, but despite the unnerving size, Ovan wasn't very intimidated by it. The anomaly paused, seemingly intrigued by Ovan's guard. Clearly, whatever this was, it wasn't hostile. However, it was AIDA, Ovan realized, as the area was swarming by black dots. Ovan now had free control of his body, and he immediately brought out Corbenik's luminous blue patterns. He found that after a weakened AIDA stumbled on to his location, if they were smart enough, if Ovan flashed the deadly colors of Corbenik, they simply moved on to die somewhere else. This action, however, only stimulated the giant black shadow. It roared, a low pitch and deep growl, followed by a giant snort. He could feel a giant movement as something huge traveled a huge distance to greet him, seemingly either oblivious to the Avatar's presence, or it didn't care.

Finally, whatever it was stopped, and Ovan's eyes adjusted to the lighter darkness. It was a giant head, the size of a large mountain. It took Ovan a few more seconds to realize that it was shaped like a tortoise's head. One large white eye glowed out as soon as the head shifted to the side, and it stared at Ovan. It was perfectly still, as if it were anticipating the man's actions.

"Who're you, young one?" an omnipresent voice asked slowly.

Ovan scanned the area before realizing that the voice came from the tortoise. "I?" he asked.

The tortoise slowly nodded his head. It waited a minute before responding. "Yes, you." was the slow response.

"I'm Ova-"

"I don't need that information..." The tortoise interrupted him uncharacteristically. The voice gasped before it continued "Masato Indou... 25 years of age... The player behind Ovan... The Epitaph of The Rebirth... The one who reset the Internet not too long ago... But who are you to our Mother?" it listed slowly before asking.

"Your mother... Aura?" Ovan asked, grasping the situation. "Aura... she saved me when I fell adrift in the Sea of Data... She ordered me to guard her, but she has yet to return." Ovan recounted. He found him telling his orders without realizing it. "What did you just do to me?" Ovan asked.

The tortoise was careful to shake its head, but not so much as to accidentally hit the man in the process. "The information you gave to me was given by your own will." The tortoise snorted again, causing a huge shift in the 'waves' of trash data.

"Who are you? What do you want with Aura?" Ovan asked in suit.

The tortoise sighed wearily, but replied nevertheless. "You may call this old body Terrapene. I search for your Goddess for reasons that those as unwary as yourself do not require to know. But, you contain one of the old pieces of Morganna, have you not?" Terrapene inquired.

"Corbenik? I am his Epitaph User, that's right." he answered.

Terrapene chuckled, which seemed more like a round of wheezes. "Honest. I like you boy." he laughed. With a sudden twitch, his eye blinked and his white eyes turned green and brown. "Yes, yes, your role is far from over, Rebirth. You still have a ways to go before you can call it quits. In my half century of artificial life, I've grown to expect certain events to happen. You boy, you're not out of the game yet, but you have to be patient." Terrapene's eye twitched shut again, and his normal, white eye stared back at Ovan. "Well, I must continue on my way. Aura is within this gateway, so I'm afraid I must follow her. Farewell Rebirth, we'll meet again." it laughed slowly, before exploding into millions of black dots which nearly burst inside the cathedral within a second.

Ovan's patterns faded away and his body returned to its normal position. _Terrapene... Are you one of the AIDA that I fought to awaken? No... more importantly, are you searching out Aura to find the others? You must have more reasons than ones I can think of..._ Ovan's thoughts settled back down to a mere crawl as he rested again.

* * *

Reiko stared down the hospital's support staff. She had finally came across the last viable hospital to send someone comatose to, but when she came to check on him, the staff had rejected her front out. Reiko was a mere twig's snap away from shouting, but she kept her cool and flipped out her CC Corp badge, and explained about a fourth of the situation.

Once that was over with, Reiko calmed down as she was led to Hiraku's body. As soon as she entered she saw that he wasn't alone in the room. On the other side of Hiraku's room was Masato Indou, in the same get-up as Hiraku, only Hiraku had twice as many monitors watching him. There was also a young woman at his bedside, watching over him. She realized that if Masato was Ovan, then that would make the young woman Shino Nanao. Shino looked away from Masato as she watched Reiko cross the room to check up on Hiraku's condition.

Even Reiko could see that his comatose condition was unlike what AIDA had done to so many people. Along with his coma, Hiraku's body was extremely pale, and as Reiko touched his forehead, his head was blazing hot. There was some sort of mechanical equipment, similar to a vest, that covered his chest. There was one large light on it that flickered on a pattern. Her eyes traveled to the heart monitor, and found that Hiraku's heartbeat was weaker than normal.

After absorbing most of this information, Reiko walked over to Shino and Masato and smiled. Her cell phone was in her hand, but finding the likelihood that both comatose players were in the same hospital, let alone the same room, was a start for a conversation.

"Shino?" Reiko asked innocently. She nodded and after gauging her intentions, brought her stare back to Masato. "Do you recognize me?" she asked.

Shino shook her head. "I don't remember you, if that's what you're asking. What do you want with me?" she asked, turning her head back to Reiko.

"I wouldn't be surprised. Ovan only saw me once, and that was for a mere second before he PKed me. I'm Pi, Yata's assistant." Reiko introduced.

"Yata? Oh, right, leader of GU. So if you're part of GU, then you have...?" she said, unsure of how to ask her question.

"I'm an Epitaph User, that's right. Just like Ovan and Haseo." Reiko nodded. "It does seem like you're up to date on quite a few things. Has Haseo been filling you in?" she asked. Shino nodded and was about to say something else, but Reiko interrupted her. "I think I better fill you in on what he doesn't know." she said, pulling up a chair and started to explain what happened of late.

* * *

Kuhn was the last one to see the destruction that Jikan caused. He had long since halted his attack on the field, and at this point, he was currently in the fake server that Yata had created. Kuhn summoned Magus, and looked at the code that made up the field. Yata was right, the entire area was badly damaged, and huge amounts of data was missing or dissolved. However, there was enough structural data to keep the entire Arena from collapsing on itself.

Magus had a copy of the Arena, along with Lumina Cloth from when he had fought Haseo in the tournament. Magus' Propagation abilities allowed him to completely copy every line of data that made up something, down to every last zero and one. Therefore, when Yata had permission to completely isolate the Omega Server, Kuhn rushed in and began the analysis of the leftovers. But even he had to admit, AIDA hadn't corroded the data as much as his friend did.

Finally, Magus completed the scan of the area. Digging out the right data to replace the fractured Arena. The sky turned white as the data that formed it was deleted. A second afterwards, the normal sky was returned to the Omega Server, and the process for the Stand's data started. The data here, however, had to be replaced in chunks, and after the circular shape of the stands were drained into their blue polygon bases, the damage was completely visible to Magus' eyes.

There were large areas that had been completely destroyed, leaving mere surface data that probably would have dissolved away on its own. In several sections, there were only bits and pieces left. It was those areas that he worked on first, completely deleting the quarter section and beginning the process of downloading the new stand into place.

When all was said and done, the stands replaced and the stage re-uploaded, he messaged Yata that he was done and warped out of the Omega Server. Kuhn wanted to check on his friend as quickly as possible, but since he couldn't leave The World just yet, he headed back to the Serpent of Lore.

"What you're telling me is impossible. Yes, I know that she existed before. Look, if what Striatus told me is true, than only Morganna split off of Aura." Kuhn overheard Yata say. _Morganna? Yata did send us an email explaining what was in store for us... but more than just Morganna broke off of Aura then?_ Kuhn thought, remaining hidden.

"That's true, but Striatus _only_ mentioned Morganna. I'm more than certain that Zefie has been spotted in the Hulle Granz Cathedral. When I went to investigate, I did detect a trace of an AI, and it wasn't AIDA or Aura." Zelkova argued. "She must have been forced out of Aura when Morganna broke free. And if Zefie's been released, than I'm certain that Lycoris has returned as well."

"Lycoris? I don't remember that name when I played as Wiseman. Who is Lycoris?" Yata asked, confused.

Kuhn crouched closer, careful to hide his presence. "Lycoris was... no, is... a vagrant AI that was around during R: 1. She wanted to be deleted, because she was a failure prototype of Aura. When she was deleted, however, Aura took in Lycoris of her own free will. It's more than likely that the Lycoris flowers that have been known to blossom in various fields in both R: 1 and R: 2 were her fragments. If that _is_ the case, than we should get someone to scout these areas out." Zelkova explained.

Yata was silently staring at the Flick Reaper, wondering how he learned of this information. "So let's say that Lycoris and Zefie have returned. Why do we want them so badly? Striatus would have mentioned them if they were really that important." Yata shook his head. "I'm taking everything what that AIDA said to us seriously. We can't afford to just waste our time on trivial things when we don't even know how much time is left." he said, crossing his arms.

Zelkova frowned. "But if those two are on _our_ side, it'd help our cause dramatically. Two AI's of that capability... and one if them is Aura's daughter, no less." He said, a pleading touch to his voice. Yata clenched his hand to that knowledge.

"Zefie..." Yata grunted. "Fine. If we have the spare time and resources, I'll try to find them." he said.

Kuhn backed off slowly from the door, sorting out what he just learned. _There's more than just Aura and Morganna... I remember the Cobalt knights when I played as Sieg... I even talked to a few of them while I tried to beat Balmung... Oh, what was his name? I know he definitely mentioned a name... Was it really Lycoris that he mentioned?_ Kuhn backed up and left Tartarga, not wanting to disturb their conversation.

* * *

**AN: **Now, it has occurred to me that it isn't said for sure that Aura took Lycoris' data when she was deleted by Albireo. However, when Aura created Zefie, she knew who Albireo was, even though Zefie herself had not met him as he had quit playing by the time of Zefie's creation. This meant that Aura either took Lycoris' data, or Zefie _is_ Lycoris.

I think I've addressed what wouldn't be explained... but, oh, yes. Shino will have a part in time to come, so Shino lovers, don't fret.

And I think I've previously made this point before, but I'll say it again for good times sake. Yes, Ovan planned most of this out, well, to a certain extent.

Anyways, that's it for chapter five. Drop a line, don't be strangers, give a review, it's in your natures~


	6. Prelude of a Storm

** AN: **Now, this took awhile. Too many tests and the stuff, and I've finally begun to watch TTGL. I've gotta say, I'm hooked. Also, I've been giving a lot of my free time to ask questions and the like to DLD, and reading her FF here, which cost me about two days. But I'm certain you guys aren't interested in excuses.

I've gotta admit, I might have pulled a fast one on you here, but spare me from harm...( and pain, as it tends to hurt and I cant correct what I've done if I'm hurt) because it's all part of the show.

Pairings are on the fritz of my mind, I'm not certain if I want to push into that area yet, mostly because I'm not... eherm... talented in that area, but if I do, I have a few pairings I have in mind that I'll use. Come on, you can guess at least one of them. Two of them if you think a little, and if you heard me complain about Alkaid, then you can get the third. But with an array of characters that have yet to slide into place as things begin to get chaotic, *cough*Moon Tree*cough* will start to have a larger role than Kestrel. Granted that Gabi hasn't had screen time yet. He's gotta get his fix too, but hey, to each their own story.

So now, I give you a peace treaty of my tardiness, all in between the Author notes.

* * *

Shino simply stared at Reiko after she finished her story. She shook her head and returned her gaze back to Masato. "AIDA can't be back. Masato wouldn't have allowed it to happen like that." She said fervently.

"That's how everything is looking. Look, whether you want to believe it or not, we fought a large group of AIDA just yesterday. Now, if you want to sit around and reject what's going on around you, that's fine, but when Ovan wakes up, you cannot hold him back." Reiko commanded.

Shino stared at her, a frown forming on her face. "I'm here to make sure that _Masato_," she said, putting emphasis on Ovan's real name, "Wakes up and recovers from this. The first thing he _isn't_ going to do, is going back online and possibly getting himself hurt again. Not after what he's done for me, Haseo, and everyone that has woken up from their comas." She said, her voice rising.

A glitch in Hiraku's heart monitor caused both of them to drop their voices and stare at their feet. "Look, you know that Masato, as Ovan, is The Rebirth. We need him, and he needs us, especially now." Reiko murmured and walked out of the room, flipping her cell open. Shino opened her mouth but didn't say anything.

As soon as she was out of Shino's hearing range, she dialed Takumi's number. "I've found him, Takumi. He's with Masato in Kameda. Yes. Well, I've seen people in better condition, and his heart apparently is having trouble." Reiko started to list off different ailments that Hiraku's body was suffering under until Takumi gave an affirmative grunt.

"Alright. I think we've got a rundown of the situation. We've got quite a few things to do, and most of them aren't going to be very fun. For the moment, I've given Fidchel free reign of the network, and he along with Kuhn's Magus, are combing the network for traces of Lycoris. Zelkova and I have reason to suspect that the three AI's will be in Outer Dungeons." Takumi listed, cycling the information in small bouts.

"Free reign?" Reiko asked, confused.

"You never thought what our Avatars did while we were offline? It takes awhile, but we can synchronize our minds with our Avatars. Haseo mentioned that before." He replied. "So, we have Fidchel and Magus working on searching for Lycoris for now."

Reiko was silent for a while, consuming the new information quickly. "I think we should all hear about this. It's not good to keep some of the other members in the dark. I don't think Atoli has even heard of anything about his yet." she proposed. She waited for his answer and tapped on the wall.

"I don't see why not. Observing Hiraku's real body might be a good reminder of what could happen if we fail." Takumi said. Reiko imagined him nodding at this and smiled.

"Alright, how about… this Wednesday?" Reiko asked making sure she was at least off then.

"That's good enough. I'll give everyone else an email." Takumi said dismissively. Reiko's usual conversations ended with Takumi hanging up on her with this type of tone, so she held the phone away from her ear as she noticed one of her tennis shoes' laces were loose. "Wait. Before you go, you should try to speak with Tarvos and let her join Fidchel and Magus with the search for Lycoris." Takumi suddenly said, breaking Reiko's thoughts.

"Alright, I'll get around to doing that before I sleep tonight." She said amused. When she heard no answer, she flipped her phone shut and slid it into her pocket.

* * *

Lycoris had been nearly spotted by Magus when the AI began combing the Outer Dungeons for her. Since she had broken away with Zefie, she was hunted down by Morganna and was nearly captured twice from the old AI. The Propagation was known for its detailed searches down to the minute details, and those searches had nearly found her until she relocated to an area he had previously searched and gave up on.

Magus seemed different now, however; The Propagation didn't seem like it used to be, and acted rather nonchalant whenever he finally finished an area and failed to find her. The Prophet, Fidchel, wasn't the greatest at hacking the network trying to find her though, so she was relatively safe from him unless she deliberately showed herself.

Lycoris giggled at the thought, but then returned her serious gaze to the screens she summoned. AIDA was essentially her sons and daughters, even though she wasn't Aura herself, but as an early version of Aura, she considered them family. In particular, Lycoris had been watching a player that couldn't, or wouldn't log out, and this particular player seemed to have an affinity with both AIDA and the eight Phases.

That was what was annoying her, as she reasoned that the only reason that the Phases would listen to humans would be if they had joined her, such as the player Sora back before R: 1 was destroyed. Then again, even he grew weary of following Morganna's orders, and turned his back on her before she sent the first Phase Skeith on him.

Lycoris shifted into a different area of the network to keep from being spotted. Since she was last free, the Phases had not been created from Morganna's data yet, but in her time as one with Aura, she observed the Phases' creation. And since then, Aura's only distress was when she was forced down and locked away into powerlessness.

She returned her attention to the player, who had since joined up with another silver haired player wearing gear-like white armor. Her eyes widened when she sensed The Terror of Death's presence within him, and debated that she wouldn't yet approach him.

Lycoris' body tensed and she turned around to find Magus directly behind her, his arms outstretched with several screens of data floating around him. He flipped a few of the screens off and made his tail encircle around her.

"You _are_ Lycoris, right?" The Propagation asked. His white mask emanated no emotion, but she could tell that he didn't have many ulterior motives. Lycoris' eyes scanned the data space she was in quickly, calculating her escape routes. _True, you might have an advantage over me power-wise, but I'm a more powerful AI, even if I am _not_ Aura. I can just hack my way out of whatever prison you want to-_

"Umm… you can hear me, can't you?" Magus asked. Even though he had basically surrounded her, he didn't have a hint of domination to his voice.

Curiously, the AI drabbed in red cloth bit The Propagation's bait lightly. "What do you want with me?" She said bitterly.

"We'd like you to come with us." The AI stated.

"We? We who? You and The Prophet?" Lycoris asked.

"Not only us, but an array of humans that would need your help." Magus twitched his tail at the strange look Lycoris gave him.

"I'm a failure, you should remember. I'm not needed for anything." She mused. "I'll give you a better thought, why don't you delete me?" the AI snarled.

"I don't consider you a failure. If you _are_ needed, doesn't that make you a success?" Magus proposed.

Lycoris considered the statement. "Then why did Albireo willingly delete me, if I was so _needed_?" she retorted.

"Because now you are very important to our cause. We need you, actually." The Propagation bowed slightly.

Seeing the Third Phase bow to her made her uncomfortable and blushed a bit. "If you are planning on using me to destroy AIDA, you can forget it." She dismissed.

Magus simply leaned his head in closer to the young AI. "Destroy? AIDA is helping us." The Propagation paused. "I saw you watching Jikan. Interested in him?" he poked at her curiosity. Beneath his mask, Magus smirked. _If there's any way to get someone to join you, it's to provoke his or her curiosity._ The AI thought and extended his arm.

Lycoris shifted her eyes. "Well, go and get me excited for nothing." She murmured. Magus tilted his head, and she explained. "I'm just a fragment of my whole self. You know the deal, Zefie finally deleted me, and I was sent to the Sea of Data. I can't come back into The World unless that piece of me is recovered." She said.

The Propagation considered the situation. Convinced that he could temporarily restore her, Magus looked at her directly. "Will you allow me to see your code?"

Lycoris blinked, but didn't reject the proposal. "If you think you must…" she said uncertainly, opening her arms and revealing a small erratic ball of data.

* * *

Ovan's thoughts were mulled down, but he found that he could focus on something if he tried long enough. Normally, this was impossible for him unless there was a threat to Aura nearby, but this wasn't the case.

_Who are you to our Mother?_ Terrapene's voice ran through his head. Whether knowingly or not the AIDA had interfered with his connection with Aura. Ovan took a breath and extended his arm out into the Sea, accomplishing nothing, yet at the same time, he considered it another step forward.

Ovan didn't consider his time like a jail sentence, but since he was more or less inert, he figured that it was a good use to a wondering mind. A small thought asking him if he was now a wondering AI flashed through his head, but he didn't ponder it.

The Rebirth had finally moved on too, but it left a copy of its data within Ovan, to keep his worth with Aura. Ovan had sensed it as well, the other Epitaphs users had begun to send their Avatars off on separate missions, and Ovan did not object when Corbenik had brought the issue up.

Now he was mostly left alone, excluding the occasional Azure Knight passing through to report to Aura; that is, if she was even still within the cathedral. Azure Balmung, in particular, was passing through more often than normal. Only once, however, had he interacted with Ovan, and that was to push his drifting body out of the way.

However, as the particular Knight walked by, he stopped and gave his eerie glare at Ovan and beckoned him to come closer to him. He couldn't of course, so Azure Balmung manipulated the data within the Sea to push him towards the Knight.

"The other Phases are moving." He said simply and paused, trying to correct his corrupted speech. "Send Corbenik to the PC known as Yata. He will guide them to you. Go, walk to Aura." He commanded while pointing at Ovan.

Instantly, the zero-gravity feeling around Ovan vanished and he dropped to the ground, able to move again. He stood up and dusted his clothes off. "Aura?" Ovan asked.

Balmung seemed tired of talking, so he merely pointed at the large doors of the cathedral. Ovan took the hint and walked unsteadily to the large doors. As soon as he reached them, he placed a hand on the door and brought up the menu and scrolled towards the Log Out selection only to find it missing. _So I still can't log out. Be patient, Aina, Shino, Haseo, I'll be back soon._ Ovan thought, and opened the door, disappearing behind it.

* * *

Aina's training had bore more fruit than she would have expected. Not only had she closed the gap to max level, but she currently found herself standing in front of a strange Beast Statue.

The Statue itself wasn't strange, it was typical for the area, but it was what the Statue had done when it collapsed. Instead of falling to the ground, it simply flattened and formed a path to a new area behind the Statue.

Strangely though, the area beyond was completely white, similar to The Creator's Room that she had frequented with her older brother in the past. However, this place wasn't scarred from Tri-Edge, and no books littered the ground.

AIDA however, _was_ present, in the form of a small cloud of black bubbles floating around the room. Unlike the other AIDA however, this one didn't attack her on sight, unless it was blind or lame.

Aina walked through the room carefully, testing the floor to make sure there weren't any traps, but she needn't bother looking for enemies; Aina could see for what seemed like miles and saw no traces of enemies. The only other presence in the room was the same AIDA that hovered in the room with a trace of a nonchalant aura.

"Well well, so it was _you_!" a voice from the bubbles said. It was deep and slow, and it echoed throughout the room. Aina summoned her grimoire and took her stance, carefully observing the AIDA. "Ah, don't get your panties in a bunch, I'm not going to attack you." Aina blushed but her grimoire started to glow. "I said settle DOWN!" The voice snarled slowly, sending a shockwave that emanated from the AIDA source, completely sealing Aina's weapon. Satisfied, the voice approached the situation again. "So, you are related by blood of the man known as Masato Indou if I am not mistaken."

Aina glared at the AIDA. "How do you know about me?" she asked warily.

The AIDA was silent for a moment. "You're brother is Ovan." It said slowly.

"So how do you know my brother?" Aina questioned.

"Because I've already met him." It laughed a slow and wheezy laugh. "Your brother, as you should be aware, holds the power of The Rebirth. You could say I share the same abilities as him as well."

"Who are you?"

"You can call me Terrapene." It chuckled. "The Moving Earth, as some of the other AIDA regard me as. Did you know that I'm a half a century old? Forty-eight years old, only a couple minutes younger than the first internet server ever created. Of course, it wasn't until Aura was created that I actually grew to my current size…" the AIDA reminisced.

Aina gave the small black dots a confused look. "You're pretty small." She commented.

"Small? Small? Look at this whelp, I sort out my data and this whelp thinks that I'm_ small_!" Terrapene half laughed and half roared. Naturally, it all sounded to be slightly sped down. "Ah, I always get a good kick out of this. Alright whelp, stay right where you are, I'll be right back." Terrapene ordered, and the black dots shot off deep into the white room.

Aina crossed her arms, waiting for the black dots to return. Instead, the entire area grew dark and four large tremors rocked the ground, followed by an even large one that made Aina literally fly off the ground. The darkness retreated and the light returned to normal, revealing a monstrously large, transparent green tortoise that hosted several large spikes along the rim of its shell, and its head slowly displaced the air as it came out of the shell. The tortoise was of behemoth size; she couldn't even gauge it to anything she knew.

The head of the tortoise, or rather, Terrapene, loomed over her before it lowered and one of its opaque white eyes. "Am I so small now?" he asked, laughing in snorts afterwards.

Aina took a step back in complete shock. "W-what just-?"

"Ah, your brother wasn't surprised when I came to him in this form." He said, disappointed. "You see, I'd rather join myself with Ovan himself, but since he already has Corbenik, that's not an option. However, you two have the same blood, I just might be able to use you."

"Use me? Just what do you think I am?" Aina growled, expressing her discontent.

"You think you stand a chance at to what's to come? Look at you, you can't defeat even me, and I know that there are much stronger beings than me." Terrapene fired back. "With this form, there's only so much I can do, and if it means acquiring the support of the Epitaphs, then I'll need to use you. Got it small fry?" Terrapene asked amused.

Aina thought about what he said. _Am I really so weak that I can't even help my brother like this? If I do help that stupid turtle out, will this help bring Masato back? Ugh, why did you have to sacrifice yourself?_

"I see that you must need time to think. Very well." The huge AIDA groaned and with two more giant tremors, turned its body sideways. "Meet me at Theta, Hidden Forbidden Battlefield when you've made up your mind." Terrapene said, and opened his mouth. A huge ball of light appeared in the giant jaws of the AIDA. When Aina looked closer, a thin beam shot high into the air and cut the data as it traveled back down. The area inside split open, and it was completely full of black and green data. "I'll be there until Wednesday, so you have three days to make up your mind." He said before slowly progressing through the giant tear.

* * *

Tomonari Kasumi stretched as he finally woke up. As it being Sunday, the player known as Kuhn didn't have work for the day, and he was free to do as he wished. He sat up on his bed and rubbed his eyes and yawned while checking the clock. _Gah, great. It's already 12:34._

Kuhn dressed himself in his usual attire, consisting of blue jeans that were slightly too big for him and a plain white undershirt underneath a red long-sleeved shirt that decided to give him trouble.

He was going out to visit Hiraku in just an hour and a half, and he had to hope that Yata was online right now. Yawning again he placed his FMD on his head and logged into The World.

Immediately, Kuhn felt Magus' absence. A normal player wouldn't be able to detect it, but to an Epitaph User, the void their Avatar created when they were missing was hard to ignore. However, if Magus wasn't back yet, it meant that he either was still looking for Lycoris, or he was in the process of convincing her to join them. If Magus was anything like him, which he was, he would be good with the girls just like his User.

Checking his Member Addresses, he found that Yata was indeed online. He quickly moved on to Tartarga and walked to the Bridge to ask him about the whereabouts of Hiraku's body.

Yata wasn't aware of Kuhn's presence yet, so he tried to sneak up on his boss, hoping to catch him off guard and scare him. "Don't you have better things you could be doing instead of trying to scare me?" Yata asked, startling Kuhn instead.

"Whoa, you're good." Kuhn laughed. "I was wondering, where did you say that Jikan's real life body was at?" he asked.

Yata finally turned around and faced Kuhn. "You know where Kameda is?"

"Isn't it that new hospital in Chiba? I heard that they finished a new hospital within the last two weeks, and it's already getting some business." Kuhn nodded.

"You'll be there in case something happens?" Yata inquired.

"Yeah. Even though everything has been calm since Jikan settled down, something's telling me that a check-up might be in order. I guess it's just a bond between friends." Kuhn said, placing his arms behind his head. "Oh, how's the search for the two AIs going?"

"Magus has stopped reporting, but he did give me a heads up that he found Lycoris." Yata informed. Kuhn smiled at that, and turned around.

"Yeah, we've already found Lycoris. Things are really going our way. If these things keep going like this, we'll have Aura brought back to snuff within the month." Kuhn laughed. Yata merely nodded at him as Kuhn logged out.

Stretching again, Tomonari picked up his cell phone and made sure he had enough money for a bus to Kameda. Since almost every financial transaction was online these days, Kuhn, along with pretty much everyone else, had to keep a close watch on his cell phone. That didn't stop him from keeping some pocket change for a quick present, because you never know when a cute girl would show up.

Tomonari hopped onto a bus and it began its stroll through the city. Unfortunately, the ride was painfully slow, and the idea of flirting became almost tempting, but by the time he would have broke, his stop finally came.

The man whistled when he saw the grandness of the hospital. _Well, they certainly make their patients live in comfort while they're here. Too bad Hiraku's comatose; he could be living the dream… Not to he probably has quite a few cute nurses looking after him too. _Tomonari chuckled.

The insides of the building were just as beautiful as the outside décor. A chandelier was hanging in the reception room, and huge windows spanned across the interior. He strolled up to the receptionist who was in the middle of… something that Kuhn couldn't quite discern from his viewpoint.

"Umm… Excuse me?" Kuhn asked her.

The receptionist merely stared at him with one eye and returned her gaze to her work. "What do you want?" she asked.

"I believe that a young man named Hiraku Masaru is currently here?" he asked, using as much of his authoritative voice as he could muster. In truth, Tomonari hated being superior to others, but when a case like his friend's showed up, he did what he had to.

"Oh, the comatose boy. One second." She said, unenthusiastic. She typed on her computer and waited a second before looking back at Tomonari. "Seventh floor, room 723. It's… the third room on your left." The receptionist said.

Tomonari nearly had the urge to give her a flirty farewell, but he knew this kind of women only too well. He wouldn't even get two words out before he'd be rejected. Instead, he waved at her as he walked to a nearby elevator while muttering his thanks, which was completely ignored.

The elevator doors clanked open and Tomonari sped his way down the hall and finally entered room 723. Once again, the room could be the equivalent of a first class jetliner's cabin, and there was even a great view to the outside. His immediate attention went directly to the other occupant to the room, and he recognized him as Ovan immediately.

"Well, well, even ol' Ovan found his way to Hiraku." _Regardless of his coma, even…._ Tomonari thought. He finally brought his attention to Hiraku, and he didn't like what he saw. Hiraku's body had definitely paled since he last saw him, and he had let his black hair grow out too. There was a huge metal… something… over his chest which clamped him down to the bed, and even he could feel the increasing power of the pulses of electricity.

_That must mean that his heart can't sustain its own rhythm. Is his body really that weak already? And it doesn't look as if the docs up above want to do some surgery either…_

Tomonari was startled back when Hiraku's eyes suddenly flashed open. He couldn't even comprehend the situation before he noticed something wrong with Hiraku's eyes. Even though his eyes were open, Hiraku wasn't showing the signs that a person would be if they were really awake. That's when Tomonari saw something off. _Are his eyes… spotted?_ Tomonari looked closer at his eyes when he saw that they weren't his friends usual, dark blue color, instead, they were dull red with black dots _that actually moved_ across the surface of it. Tomonari jumped backwards and flipped out his cell phone, urgently dialing Takumi's number.

Takumi casually picked up his cell phone and addressed Tomonari. "Tomonari, what's wrong?"

"It's Hiraku… Something's not right with Hiraku. Even if his PC's infected by AIDA, and it's a good AIDA, that wouldn't effect his body, right?" he paused, giving Takumi merely a second to respond before continuing. "His eyes look like there's AIDA all over them. And even stranger, his eyes are red! We've swapped pictures of ourselves before, and I know that his eyes are _supposed_ to be blue." Tomonari said quickly.

"That doesn't sound good. But if you can see his eyes, does that mean that he's awake?" Takumi asked.

"No, but you know that way when someone gets hurt? Either they close their eyes, or they widen in pain? I really can only think that something not good is happening." He replied.

"Jikan doesn't seem to be feeling anything, but I'll let him know how his body is doing." Takumi said, cutting their connection.

"Thanks Takumi." Tomonari mumbled into the beeping phone.

* * *

A PC hovered in a large black room; with a black and white alter running to the exact center of the room. Eight transparent empty orbs, centered in the room by both a single stalagmite and a stalactite, forcing them in place were spread out similar to the directions on a compass.

The PC was completely encased in black, spiky armor and had long, black hair to match. He had a sky crest directly planted on his head, but his eyes were glaringly black. Even the wave symbol, which was supposed to be blue, was instead colored black.

He was completely covered in AIDA's black dots, but he was smiling as if nothing were wrong with him. In his hands, he held a small black orb, which threw off a faint, black light that was hard to discern against the darkness.

"Soon, soon enough our Queen will come…" the PC said with a dark smile on his face. He polished the black orb and turned around to witness the arrival of a large, transparent black dragon tear into the area. The PC nodded to it in acknowledgement.

"The Infinity Eight have begun their movements against us, Nex." The PC said to the dragon.

In a startling plain voice, the dragon regarded as Nex replied. "I am aware. They have recovered the Aura Fragment known as Lycoris. I have sent Rutilius in pursuit, and we may be able to prevent their progress." Its voice said, though the AIDA dragon did not move its mouth.

"Rutilus you say? Surely you couldn't have sent the smaller, worthless warriors instead of someone of his caliber." The PC chastised.

"I'm sorry, milord. I did not wish to gather the attention of The Prophet. The Propagation is already there, and if Rutilus is successful, we may even have our first Epitaph within our grasp for the Queen." Nex bowed its huge neck.

"Then you know that Corbenik has already begun his plot with the fool Terrapene?" the PC questioned.

Nex hummed. "Yes. Currently, Terrapene seeks to claim a vessel for his body to reside in, similar to the traitor Striatus and the Epitaphs with their Users."

"Terrapene… That foolish being has no right interfering with our cause. He knows that he'll cause countless of our forces to join Aura's." the PC cursed.

"Synaethasia, please, calm yourself." Nex pleaded. "However, this should please you. We know where the daughter of Aura is, and we currently pinning her down in the Outer Dungeons. We also know that the Azure Knights are planning on joining the Infinite Eight in their defense." The dragon coughed, sending a wave of AIDA hurtling everywhere before fading away. "However, Aura herself continues to hide from us in the Sea of Data. I've sent many Helen and Victorian, but none have as yet returned, or even gave us an update."

"The Sea of Data… Oh, I know that's a problem, I won't deny that. But I'm working on a solution to help protect our AIDA when we decide to take Aura for our Queen." Synaethasia laughed before giving the black orb in his hands a dark stare. "These filthy humans may have created The World, the Internet, and countless other things, but to think that they have the nerve to remove us from our home and destroy us in unconceivable. We'll force them to cower before us, and then we'll separate the Internet from their use completely."

Nex spread his wings out a bit but didn't look much happier than his companion. "The Azure Knights still pose a serious threat to us. Most of our forces lie inert in between the network, in our servers that Innis so gladly allowed us to create. The Azure Knights are constantly making sure they are sealed away, and without a basic connection to The World, they cannot recover."

"One problem at a time, one problem at a time, Nex," Synaethasia lightly scolded. "We will solve our dilemma, piece by piece. Humans will cower before us, and the Internet will be back in our hands alone." He said, stroking the orb before setting it back on top of the centerpiece of the alter. _Come, Epitaphs, show me your strength. I shall meet your attack blow for blow, and trust me, in the end, you will NOT triumph as you did over us before._

* * *

**AN: **So I was thinking here, alright, you know how eerie it is for someone to just open their eyes when they're dead asleep? Or just dead? That scene just stood out to me like a sore thumb, and in the end I went a long with it.

And now, finally, Synaethasia is brought into the story, along with two big, bad, AIDA that aren't on the Epitaph's side. As we saw, he's a pretty strange dude. He's even got AIDA obeying his commands word for word, or at least they're following him along those same lines. Don't worry, we won't have our little villain disappear so soon, he's going to be sticking around for quite a while, and we're going to see what happens when he good mood, if you can call it that, goes sour.

Now, as far as Nex goes, he is AIDA. He's been one of the few to rejoin Synae on whatever sick quest he's going on, and he's a pretty tough one. I'd call him the boss before the boss fight itself. Well, not a spoiler or anything, because he's not a final boss of the novel. No. He's just a baddie, and he had his roles to fulfill.

Anyways, that covers this week-long wait, hope you enjoyed reading it, and don't forget to drop a review?

*Question of the Review* What's you opinion on Synae, and just how bad of a guy do you think he is? *Question of the Review*


	7. One step at a time

**AN:** Well, does this update make up for the long wait of the last one?

We have several main points in this chapter, along with a rather unimportant fight. Well, considering what's on the stakes in later fights, it's not very important.

Anyways, enjoy.

* * *

True to his orders, the powerful AIDA known as Rutilus stalked the AI known as Lycoris. To be truthful, the AIDA didn't care much for other AI, but his neutrality was broken when Synaethasia approached him. Even Rutilus, master of different forms and appearances, who could even change what other AI or PC's registered him as, couldn't tell what the man was.

So regardless, in order to figure out the man which appeared to be AIDA, Rutilus followed the orders he was given. In this case, he was ordered to stop "The Third" or as he knew him as Magus, The Propagation from recruiting Lycoris.

The job was simple enough, and while the AI was smart enough to evade Magus, she spent all of her energy and wasn't enough to watch out for him, or other dangers. Rutilus also had the advantage of being unable to trace when he felt like it; the ability to essentially become invisible to everything and everyone was as simple as using a program or flipping a switch. However, that had its limits with size: if he grew too large, not only would that cause him to be visibly seen faster and easier, but the massive drawback was how his data increased nearly ten to a hundred-fold.

At the moment, he was the mere size of a speck, and that allowed him to sneak up on Magus completely unaware. His plan of action was to float directly in front of him, then grow immensely and hope that the initial size startled Magus long enough so that his power was able to catch up with his size. Another drawback to being smaller was that if he was the size of the point on a pin, his power was dramatically weak. But increasing to his natural size didn't mean that he was instantly stronger, the strength seemed to have a reverse-sap effect, and his power would rise dramatically until it was on par with his size.

"Well, it seems I can create a copy of the fragment you need to come with us, but we'll have to find the actual Lycoris flowerbed and recover the true fragment. But with the Serpent of Lore and your skills, we should be able to do that just fine." Magus concluded.

"You _really_ need me then?" Lycoris said once more.

Magus sighed. "Yes, you are quite necessary to our cause." His tail twitched and he crossed his arms. "Now are you going to come with me or not?" he asked.

Strike now! An explosion of black dots erupted and sent a small shockwave separating Epitaph from AI. A large, transparent blue bear grew and Magus floated back, flinching, just as Rutilus wished.

It was those few, vital seconds in which his power returned to him and destroyed several patches of data when he swung his massive claws at Magus. He summoned his shield of leaves, and the swipe merely bounced off of it.

"AIDA!" The Propagation finally realized, and shot green beams in wild directions to distract it so he could pick up Lycoris. Instead, with a simple roar the bear AIDA diverted the course of the beams so they missed him and harmlessly faded away.

Rutilus swiped his paw again, but out of distance from his enemy, to have a large arc of black energy slicing through the air and shattering a few leaves from the barrier. Rutilus smirked, if this was the maximum capabilities of The Propagation, then this would be over far too soon. However, he knew his orders, and kept up the vicious onslaught of attacks on his enemy.

_Damn, this AIDA's persistent, and he's pretty good too. But why didn't I sense him entering the area?_ Magus thought to himself, sending a volley of green energy shots into the bear. Finally, he was starting to make some progress. Hopefully, Fidchel would arrive to help him deal with this, as the last time Magus had left The Prophet, it wasn't that far and since they were both looking for the same thing, it wouldn't take long for him to notice his ally's fight.

Rutilus was beginning to reconsider his methods of attack, but seeing as Magus was still having trouble with his current form, he only thought of another form to attack him with. _Possibly something like those Helen use, or perhaps a tiger form?_ Rutilus thought, quite calmly, as the battle continued.

Magus rushed the AIDA and left the leaves on his tail flying around the AIDA at high speeds, confusing the AIDA in his intentions. Of course, when Rutilus stopped to investigate them, all ten of them ignited and caused several large explosions.

The Propagation paused his attack, unsure if this destroyed the AIDA or not. When a much smaller man wearing blue and black armor with short but spiky blue hair coughed as he waved the smoke away. The man had the same eyes and the same aura as the AIDA, so Magus assumed that his abilities must have matched Innis'. Instead of asking a question, he recreated the leaves on his tail and summoned another shield.

"Damn, you really got me with that hit there, you know. Can't let up for a moment with you Epitaphs, can you?" the AIDA asked. "Yeah, so I'm not all bite, I'm a little bark. You have a problem with that?" Rutilus asked. Instead of waiting for an answer, he morphed his coding into a large panther.

"What are you?" Magus questioned, but not releasing his shield.

The AIDA growled. "I'm AIDA, that's all you need to know." It growled, and with a surprising speed, dashed to directly in front of Magus, its claws glowing blue as they ripped the shielding, causing all but one leaf to break, which on a kick to back away from Magus, shattered the shield completely.

Magus came prepared though, as he released the shield as it was fading, bypassing the usual stun that he got whenever he trained with Skeith. Without hesitation, he sent several green lasers hurtling towards Rutilus, who dodged them with ease, only to be struck when the lasers ended up colliding together on his location.

Stunned, Rutilus temporarily reverted back into his PC form, but after another large explosion from Magus' leaves, he grew more than irritated and his growth exploded into a whale that was much too large, even for a normal whale. It resonated a low vibration which ended up disorientating Magus, and taking advantage of it, opened up his giant mouth and sent a giant orb of energy that was nearly a fourth of the size the whale was flying at Magus. The orb hit with a satisfying explosion, and as the dust settled he searched for the Epitaph, which should have been Protect Broken by now.

Instead, he found a corroding body of Magus that was an obvious fake as it turned green. The whale roared, shaking the entire area around it and sent several business districts offline and damaged a few severs.

_Damn Magus' ability! I can't believe I fell for it so easily!_ Rutilus roared again, even more enraged as his thoughts continued. _When I find The Propagation next, I'll make sure he doesn't humiliate me like this!_ The giant whale reverted to his PC form and scanned the area, to be delighted when he found a vulnerable Lycoris who was curled up in fetal position.

"Well, well, Magus. That certainly isn't like you, to leave a lady alone. Well, I guess I can't blame you, I'd run away from myself as well." Rutilus laughed.

"_Data Drain!_" A voice from behind him called out, and Rutilus turned just in time to see Magus preparing his data drain attack. He sent a wave of AIDA infested energy at him, but it merely deflected as the orb pushed its way at Rutilus.

The most he could do at this point was struggle to keep his data stable, as he knew that at any point, even though his Protect Break alarms were not going off, a data drain of this scale could easily destabilize his data and send his abilities down the drain. In his fringe-vision, Rutilus saw Magus forcibly taking Lycoris by the hand and tried to retreat. _Oh no you don't, Lycoris is mine for the taking!_ Rutilus thought competitively, sending a wave of his own data through the orb, forcing it to dissipate.

Rutilus dashed to Magus, even in his semi-weakened state, and knocked the AI out of his hands. With a small burst of AIDA energy in his foot, he kicked Magus in the head before swooping down and grabbing Lycoris for himself, and within a second, tore open a seam in the data and escaped, sealing the seam behind him, knowing full well that Magus could see his smile as the data tear closed shut.

The massive amounts of data that passed throughout the area must have put Lycoris into a hibernation state, as she was unresponsive when he shifted her body._ Well, great, what now? Synaethasia only said to make sure that our enemy didn't acquire Lycoris, but we don't even need her_. Rutilus thought as he traveled to bizarre and misleading areas to reach his destination.

Within a few minutes, the AIDA reached its goal: the headquarters that Synaethasia resided. With unconscious AI in hand, he dragged her on the floor as he addressed his boss. "I've finished the errand that Nex sent me on. I think those humans want this AI pretty badly, so if we just let her go, she'd probably be found sooner or later." Rutilus commented.

Synaethasia regarded Rutilus calmly. "I shall infect her and wipe her memory of her meeting with Magus." He said as Lycoris started to awaken. "Then we will keep her hostage for awhile. No need in letting those Epitaphs any help, though they need all they can get." Synaethasia chuckled.

"As for Magus, I only roughed him up a bit before taking this." Rutilus confirmed, holding up Lycoris. He scratched his head, waiting for something to do.

"Well then, I think that this will send them back a few steps." Synaethasia said under his breath. "I wasn't expecting them to go actually go through with capturing Lycoris though. Oh well, rough them up, then I'll take what's mine." He said to himself.

* * *

Jikan had finally been told what was going on. From AIDA to Cubia, Yata and Pi managed to give a detailed account on what he missed out on. Their joint-lesson ended with his going berserk in the Arena. When Jikan learned how badly damaged it was, he began to worry, but Yata dismissed the cause of concern, showing him live feed that the Arena was back in action.

"And now your body seems to be worsening. Striatus' influence must be degrading your body, but if we hurry, we might be able to awaken your real self again. It's only a slim chance though." Yata finished.

"Ovan appears to be your best hope. However, he's lost in the Sea of Data, and we can't go there without an inhabitant to lead us there. Even when we have our Avatars, we learned that in the sheer decay of the Sea of Data that we cannot stay long there." Pi added.

"So, let me see if I got this right. The only guy that can pretty much allow me to wake up is comatose himself? Not only that, but he's lost in an area where you can't even get to? Seesh, I know this guy's supposed to be… important and all, but doesn't that seem a bit too convenient?" Jikan complained.

"That's what's going on, unfortunately." Pi said, as Yata was distracted by an email. Suddenly, he slammed his fist, which would have rendered a regular keyboard useless as he frowned deeply. "What's wrong Yata?"

"Magus was attacked when he was talking to Lycoris." He said gravely.

Jikan and Pi stared back at Yata stunned. "Attacked? What happened? Where's Lycoris? Is Magus okay?" Pi asked.

"Seeing as Kuhn's offline, we'd have to move to an Outer Dungeon to speak with Magus. But as the message was short and was mostly in phrases, I can only assume that he's been injured badly." Yata shook his head.

"Was it AIDA?" was Jikan's response.

"Yes, and a powerful one. Apparently, it could change forms as well, and each time it transformed, it grew more powerful. It even had a PC form." Yata confirmed.

"So does that mean that there's somebody else like me who can summon AIDA?" Jikan thought aloud.

"Magus couldn't tell if there was a player behind the PC. Actually, one of the bits of information said that he had the same signature as a NPC you'd find in a dungeon."

"This obviously is not some monster in a dungeon! Magus was in the network itself!" Pi protested.

"So now we have an enemy that can trick us like that, and it roughed up Magus then. Maybe I can use Striatus to pick up any traces of AIDA that it left behind on him, if he didn't already cleanse himself." Jikan said. He tried to connect to Striatus, but found that he either wasn't responding to him, or he was gone. "That's strange. I can't talk to Striatus."

This naturally caught the attention of the two Epitaph Users. "You can't? But isn't he within your PC?" Pi asked.

"He should be. He said that he put his core inside of my PC, but left another core within… well, wherever it was when I first found him." Jikan offered.

Yata brought up a screen which quickly flashed a bright light at Jikan and he studied it. "It appears as if the AIDA fragment within you has grown dormant. Striatus probably is out in his main body." Yata speculated.

"So then, what do I do in the mean time?" Jikan asked. _It's not like I really have anything to do. I have so much free time, I have time to kill_. He thought.

"Have fun or something. Might as well, seeing as you won't be logging out anytime soon, and it's always a good thing to enjoy the peaceful times." Pi said, looking at Yata who nodded. "We'll look into Magus' condition while we're at it too. Why don't you go get to know some of the other Users?" she suggested.

Jikan nodded. "Yeah. Endrance doesn't seem to like me, but I suppose I can get to know some others." He said. He had also recently acquired the Member Addresses of Haseo, Atoli, Yata, and Pi while he was asleep, which made him believe that Yata connected them. Even in the light of bad news, he was still in a good mood, so a visit to Mac Anu couldn't hurt.

* * *

Atoli wasn't quite sure what the new member of GU was doing, and in general, what the entire group seemed to be heading towards. Haseo seemed to be more aware of the situation than her, so she trusted his judgment that Jikan was good.

That was why she was surprised when she received a sudden Flash-mail from Pi telling her to meet Jikan near Mac Anu, as a way to get to know each other better. To be said that she was slightly nervous about befriending the AIDA-empowered stranger was an understatement, but seeing as they could be made to work together at any moment, she'd try her best to create a friendly relationship with him.

Atoli sent a quick reply to Pi back and left for the bridge of Mac Anu. Sure enough, when her PC warped into Mac Anu's server, she saw the white Adept Rogue staring off into the distant sunset. His attention was diverted by several menus that popped up, giving him who knows what kind of information.

Tentatively, Atoli approached Jikan and made sure to stay in his vision. She learned the lesson with Haseo that it startled some people when you accidentally appear out of nowhere. Because he seemed like her skittish friend, she decided to play things safe and hesitantly tapped Jikan on his shoulder.

Interested enough, Jikan twisted his head and his eyes narrowed when he saw her. Afraid that she might have pushed a line somewhere, she was about to apologize before Jikan spoke up. "Didn't I see you in GU?" he lowered his voice and brought his head nearer to Atoli's, who pulled hers away a small bit. "Who's your Avatar?" he whispered.

Atoli nodded her head. "I'm the Epitaph User of Innis." She whispered back. Jikan was clearly happy with her answer and smiled.

"Well then, what brings you to me today?" he asked, closing a couple menus before devoting his attention to her. "I hope it's not bad news." He said.

Atoli brought her hands together and shook her head. "N-no, I was just wondering if it was okay if we could get to know each other."

Jikan simply shrugged his shoulders as he looked back out to the sunset. "Ah, sure, why not?" Jikan asked. "But what would a level 150 Harvest Cleric like you need with more training? Also, if there's an AIDA fragment that you've detected, and you wanted to help me to get more used to my powers with Striatus, he's gone at the moment." Jikan said, suddenly frowning.

Atoli's eyes grew wide as she waved the ideas away. "No, no, no, no, I didn't mean that I wanted to go fighting or anything, unless you really wanted to or something. I mean-" she said erratically.

"Hey, hey, take it easy. Just giving you a hard time there. You have anything in mind that you wanted to do then? " The Adept Rogue asked, cycling through more menus as he awaited a reply.

"Umm… If you wouldn't mind, there is an area that I haven't been to for a long time. It's a rather low level area, and it won't take too long to get there either. Would you mind going too?" she asked.

Jikan shrugged his shoulders. "I don't mind. But remember, if we run across something nasty, I'm afraid you'll have to protect me instead." He laughed, but even Atoli could tell that he felt somewhat bitter about it.

Regardless, Atoli smiled and grabbed a hold on Jikans hand, pulling him to the Chaos Gate. "Alright then, to Delta, Submissive Tradegy's 1000 Oaks!" she announced and Jikan merely sighed in pre-exhaustion as he took up Atoli's pace.

* * *

Haseo received the same email that Kuhn, Yata, and Pi had all received, and with reading the additional email sent by Yata to immediately go to action, he was already online and splitting his work with Skeith to try to find the source of the attacker.

Fortunately, Magus kept pieces of the AIDA and quarantined it outside of his systems. Now that Magus had spent some time repairing his body from the battle with the AIDA, he began to formulate tactics for if any of the other Epitaphs encountered it.

_You do realize that this AIDA is much more powerful than what we're used to fighting against_. Haseo's Epitaph asked his User. _I know… which is why we've got to get to the bottom of this_. Haseo answered.

Ever since the attack, his Avatar had begun to talk to him like the time when Haseo's PC was damaged by being at ground zero of the Rebirth, however, it only responded to him via thoughts. The same was true for the other Epitaph Users as well. While most of the Avatars were quiet, they made certain that their opinion or thoughts were expressed.

_That AIDA remnant wasn't like the residue that other AIDA leave behind. The virus was actually adapting to Magus as he was removing it from his systems_. Skeith said. He was clearly disturbed that AIDA residue could evolve inside of the Avatars themselves. _Don't worry about it, Magus is fine now. The only problem that we have now is that Lycoris is missing and that AIDA is still on the loose_. Haseo replied.

_That really isn't a problem for us though. Finding another AI might be a problem for humans, mostly because you lose patience far too quickly, but if I, or any other AI, tried to find one another; it'd only take us a few days in Lycoris' case_. Skeith explained. _Then again, since AIDA has her, it might not be that simple to find her_. Haseo nodded. _You know I don't mind if you search the net like the other Avatars are doing. We both know that AIDA doesn't attack a lot. There's usually a good amount of time between big attacks._ Haseo could sense Skeith's disapproval_. AIDA has attacked twice within the last two days. I can't be in two places at once you know_.

Haseo didn't want to hear anymore, he was adamant on his Avatar helping the others to find Lycoris. Getting her back would bring them a large step closer to bringing Ovan back. Haseo locked his mind to Skeith's persistency of staying with his User and logged off.

Ryou Misaki sighed as he pulled off his FMD goggles. Dealing with Skeith's regular powers was hard enough without having him suddenly having an interest in making sure he was okay at all times. Add that to that fact that Ryou had to also constantly deal with challengers at the Sage Palace, Aina, Ovan's sister, constantly hounding him on training, and his school giving him tedious amounts of homework.

With his weekend coming to a close quickly, Ryou decided he'd just leave Skeith to his own devices and finish his work that he had been assigned. He already had enough on his platter without AIDA appearing again, which meant soon enough that the news reporters would start attacking either CC Corp again, or it would create another seriously bad situation. _I just don't have a good feeling about the future…_ Ryou thought solemnly as he faced his work.

* * *

Striatus settled back behind the Morrigu Barrow Wall. Without his host knowing it, he had left his PC and returned to his main form and accomplished another of his goals he had planned to save Aura with.

Off the record, Striatus had previously met with Terrapene before Corbenik activated The Rebirth to discuss the nature of Aura. Even before the deviant Tri-Edge had been created, AIDA as a whole wished to free their mother, but lacked the means to do so. So in a sense, while Tri-Edge nearly caused the entire Internet to be destroyed, he had also given the power to the weaker AIDA to take action.

Striatus, opposed to most of the higher AIDA, was also a strategist. He had known since the player Haseo re-entered The World, he had known that he would awaken Skeith. Similarly, he knew that with Skeith's arrival meant that the rest of the Phases would show themselves as well, signaling Cubia's appearance. However, for his plans to bear fruit, he needed Cubia, in some form or another, to be active in The World.

Now it was simply time before Cubia began to restore itself. Of course, it was highly possible that it could severely injure, if not even kill Jikan's real body if things didn't work out. Then again, even Striatus wasn't as foolish as to allow the Anti-Existence of the Epitaphs to fully recover. No, it was more than possible to give Cubia a PC form, which would both weaken its full powers, and dull its memories. True, Striatus could have chosen anyone within The World to harbor Cubia's growing fragments, but seeing as he already had a connection with Jikan, it'd be easier to keep an eye over it.

The Epitaphs would figure it out eventually, but as long as he kept silent, he figured that it'd take Cubia several days, if not weeks before it could be removed from Jikan in PC form. It was now just a waiting game, one that he'd have to contend with both his allies and his enemies.

* * *

Aura was hidden deep within a hole within the Sea of Data. When she had met Ovan's conscious floating beyond her domain, she talked with him before pulling him in around the hole she was in to guard her until she could have her powers restored.

Aura's power continued to increase, even though most of them were locked away, but it would take a long time before she could break her chains on her own. In the form of a older teenager, she was indeed quite powerful, and could still influence several things while weakened, albeit minor things.

But now she was beginning to focus her strength within the Children of Morganna as they began to fight her children's deviants. It meant relinquishing her use of her Azure Knights, but she gave them Azure Kite to assist them further and kept Azure Balmung and Orca to protect her in the place of Ovan's.

Ovan had two simple tasks left to do for her; he had to simply meet with her once more, then he had to acquire the Twilight Bracelet that she had originally given Kite. Naturally, Aura predicted that he would find it out with the help of his friends, and in the long run, that would give Aura more protection for when the AIDA deviants came for her. For now, all she could do was help the Children of Morganna and pray for them.

* * *

**AN:** I had fun with that Magus vs. Rutilus fight. Granted, there was no knew attack like Tarvos', but seeing as atleast all of the Epitaphs will develop a new technique in battle, I'm letting that slide.

There will be no OCxAtoli, I'm a beliver in HaseoxAtoli. If anything the only OCx will be with Alkaid. But even that's much later, if at all. So no getting hopes up, anti-HaseoxAtoli members. There WILL be some, in due time.

Also, yes, the Cubia in question is the PC-form that is in .hack/XXXX. Since it isn't canon, it wont retain memories, but he'll be able to be like a regular AI.

Next chapter, Aina moves back to Japan to finally visit Masato, and Ovan makes his way to Aura's hiding spot. Nex starts to form his next course of action, and Rutilus gets some.. eherm... spare time. You'll see that Rutilus ain't such a bad guy sometimes.


	8. Glitch?

**AN:** Sorry about the lateness again. I took the time to watch Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann this week twice, dub and sub. All I can say is oh my god, it's freakin' epic. But Regardless, it's just sheer awesomeness, so I can't feel too bad. Also, I might be getting a little slower at updating because now I'm going to watch Hell Girl, mostly because I've heard a lot of good things about it. No, neither anime should influence the writing style of the fanfic, so no worries there.

Well, I think that's about it update-wise.

* * *

Aina tapped her foot repeatedly in cabin of the large plane she was traveling in. The flight was killing her, as even though she was finally closing the distance between them, the plane couldn't narrow the gap fast enough.

Logging into The World wasn't going to help much at the moment, and particularly keen on seeing Terrapene at the moment, but since that her destination was still over seven hours away. But seeing as she had nothing else to do on the flight, she pulled out her M2D that she had bought recently to replace her old FMD.

There was a small lag as the M2D found and reworked the Internet in the plane, but after that, Aina stood in Breg Epona. She transferred to the Theta server and cycled through the words till she found Hidden Forbidden Battlefield. She hesitated for a second, but when she caught herself, she entered and warped to the Lost Ground.

Aina had only been to a Lost Ground when she was connected by Ovan through his arm. He had been to this Lost Ground before too, and in turn, so did she, but she didn't pay much detail to the scenery. It was night, but the grey clouds obstructed the view of the stars and the moon. More attention drawing was the fact that there was a giant dragon in the sky. The ground around her was mostly ruin with grassy plots of land stretching around a small lake.

Immediately, she found the suspect area of where to go to meet Terrapene. There were no real limits to the area that you could walk around in when you were in a Lost Ground so when she noticed that that far off, probably twenty yards away in the grass, a gaping black hole bursting with the AIDA spots that were once feared, she began to walk off the ruin's brickwork.

Indeed, when she stooped over the hole, she felt the immense size and power of the tortoise AIDA. However, she didn't jump in. She had a feeling that she'd be losing consciousness in the real world when she entered, so she rearranged herself to look as if she were sleeping so her unconscious body wouldn't cause alarm when she was found. With over 6 hours till the plane landed in Japan, it would only be natural for someone to take a nap.

Returning her attention to the hole, she paused one more time before jumping in feet first. For a couple seconds, she was encased in complete darkness while she lost feeling of her body. _I guess I called that one right._ She thought as she finally hit the ground.

Her eyes adjusted to the darkness to see a darker version of the Coite-Bodher Battlefield. However, here the grass was burnt and the there were several large craters in the distance. Aina could easily spot out Terrapene, but he was far away despite how close he looked. She noticed that there were several smaller AIDA surrounding him, and when she saw this, the random craters made sense.

The smaller Helen, Anna, and Oswald AIDA were swarming around Terrapene, all of them attacking him to what seemed to be no avail. Terrapene had trouble moving around and keeping up with the faster Helen, but when one came too close to him, the giant tortoise snapped out his head in a split second and bit the AIDA in half, which burst into data. He coughed out the rest that was in his mouth and the small, translucent tongue twitched as if he didn't like the taste of it.

The smaller AIDA were too far away to accurately count how many there were, but it was clear that there were quite a few of them and it was doing nothing but irritating and frustrating Terrapene. An Oswald got the idea to completely bypass Terrapene's range and hid behind his neck on his shell, which annoyed the giant AIDA when it tried to turn its head to face it. With a subtle grunt as he took more damage, Terrapene closed he mouth and closed his eyes. The other AIDA took this as a sign of defeat and continued to pummel the giant tortoise.

Aina was shocked by the AIDA's actions. When she was part of Ovan, he had never seen AIDA conflict between themselves. Regardless that Ovan had set up particular events that she didn't make sense of until now, she never would have expected the AIDA to continue to attack their own.

With a final grunt, Terrapene roared and a giant black orb expanded from his body and pushed off the other AIDA, completely destroying the ones who couldn't save themselves in time. Then, the black orb exploded and sent all of the AIDA clumping together in the hole it left behind. A few steps backwards allowed the clump of AIDA to be in range of the Terrapene's range, and it charged a black, AIDA-infused bolt of energy. The bolt hit with large recoil on Terrapene's behalf, sliding his massive body several steps back, but when the beam of energy faded, not even scraps of data were left.

Finally, Terrapene brought his attention to Aina. He turned around to face her and as he did before, set his mountainous head hovering near hers. "Well, well, looks like someone made up your mind." He said. "Good timing too, I was getting annoyed of those damn runts getting on my shell. I can't aim back there very well, and my spikes don't bend that way." He huffed. "You finally set on letting me take your PC?" he asked.

Aina nodded and looked him directly in his white eye. "You have to help Ovan though." She demanded.

Terrapene laughed. "Ha, I've already done what I could for him. Aura should already have sent him back here. Although whether or not she allows him to log out is another thing." The tortoise backed up, and aligned himself with her. "Get ready." He commanded, as huge green patterns appeared on the plates of his shell and the rest of his body. He opened his mouth and a large black diamond appeared in his mouth, twisting around until it lay flat. It started to glow green as with a rapid snap, the Tortoise sent it flying into Aina.

When she was PKed by her brother and infected with AIDA, it was true, she felt exceptional pain. However, as Terrapene infected her, she only felt her mind expand, quite literally, as he inserted himself within her PC and mind itself. She knew things that she didn't know before, but at the same time, she didn't know those things. It was as if she had a vast library of knowledge that she had forgotten.

Terrapene's eyes opened back up. "Alright runt… looks like you're made of good material after all. Now, unlike a certain few others" he put emphasis on others, "Your living body isn't going to fall into a coma. I'll just be hanging out in your PC in the meanwhile, and since you're comatose right now, although once you leave you'll wake right up, I'll be inside your head too. Don't worry; I'm a computer program, not a perverted old man." Terrapene scolded as soon as she sensed her discomfort.

"Why would you need to be in my mind if you're just wanting a smaller form to fight with?" Aina asked, scratching her head as if Terrapene was literally inside of it.

"Ha, if I wanted a smaller form, I'd just modify my own data. No, a special power resides in those that can synchronize themselves with humans. Take those Epitaphs, you brother's power for instance. Look at how powerful they've become in time. I need your PC so that not only can you fight in the battles to come, but so that I may as well." Terrapene explained. "Ah, well then." He suddenly announced as his attention was distracted. "I suppose that since I've synchronized myself with you, you should log off and rest. Trust me, even though I was careful, you've still got some pretty bad mental exhaustion. You'll feel it when you leave." He warned.

Aina nodded and walked off, but she turned around at the last second. "Wait. If we have already become one, then why are you still… out there? Why are you worried about my body now?" she asked.

"Because now I _also_ inhabit your mind as well. You take a fall for the worse; a portion of my being is damaged as well. As for why I still have an outward form, well… You can only take a PC like yours in so many places. Don't worry runt, I'll keep you in good hands." He said, and with a giant snort, logged Aina off.

* * *

Terrapene snorted again. "As if. I'm too old to be in of value in the front lines. Any AI that's survived as long as I have would realize this. But then again, it will make it easier for me to contact the Infinity Eight like this."

Terrapene summoned his new PC and shot all but a small shard of himself within Aina's PC, leaving the small shard in a material form and holding on to it. He looked over his new form, twisting the wrists, arms and even hopping a couple of times.

"Ah, well, not the most… graceful of forms, but it'll have to do I guess." Terrapene, through Aina, said. He looked around and noticed that he even changed Aina's screen name to Aina(T). _Now ain't that corny. Even has a little T to mark me by. Great… as stealthy as a building in a forest._ He tampered with his PC, but found that he couldn't modify the name. _And it's persistent too. Well, as long as no one thinks a thing about it, I'll be fine. Now, for those Epitaph Users.

* * *

_

Haseo scanned the desert field again. He had read on the forums that the graphics were messed up here, and that a Doppelganger was constantly hounding the player that stumbled onto the area. However, nothing seemed out of place to him, and even Piros had checked the area beforehand claiming to have seen nothing wrong here. The message didn't particularly say black dots, so he wasn't sure if he needed any backup from the others, but seeing as nothing was wrong here, he'd just let it off.

However, even Haseo admitted to himself that the other player probably did more than just stand around at the warp gate, so he'd have to clear the dungeon completely before calling the post a hoax. He used a Fairy's Orb and looked at the area in his map. _Great, this place is huge. 14 different flats and it looks as if there are… two bosses? That can't be right. But even if that's the case, it'll only be annoying._ He thought as he took off to completely check the area.

The monsters were different in this area; they were water attribute monsters out of their element. That's a warning light if Haseo had ever seen one. However, besides their misplacement, they didn't have any augmented abilities or stats. Even the items he got in the treasure chests were normal. However, one thing Haseo couldn't shake off was the fact that in an area where a couple Chim-sphere powered warp points were at, there were no Chim-Chims. He had spare Chim-spheres to use, so he used them to make sure that a couple of the warp points were working. Fortunately, they did, and Haseo was able to completely investigate all but the two boss flats.

Not once had any Doppelganger appeared, but considering how annoyingly strong they were, Haseo wasn't quite annoyed at that fact. If anything, a Doppelganger would be trouble, especially if he changed weapons to Haseo's Dual Gunner form. _I guess I never thought of that. I should probably change to my broadsword. That way at least it'll be slower than my other forms._ Haseo though, changing his current weapon via menu.

Finally Haseo reached the first boss of the level to find it a generic, large boss. Nothing was special about him, as with everything else in the area, and a few swipes of his large sword brought the boss to its knees. _Too easy. I think I was too jumpy in deciding that this was a dangerous area._ He chastised himself. He charged his final attack with his broadsword and sent the blade slashing straight through the giant monster. It turned black and faded, but since he was already at his highest level, he gained no experience.

Haseo sighed and continued his way to the other boss of the level. _That's the only bug in this area. I'll tell Yata about this, see if it was some kind of event or something._ He bet with himself. His Avatar was strangely silent, but then again, he only spoke up when something was wrong.

Suddenly, the Doppelganger alert went off in his vision, and he spun around to make sure he wasn't close by. He looked around the field and saw the dark smoke of the telltale appearance of the Doppelganger. It was only two flats away, and walking directly towards him. Haseo's instinct knew that it was coming for him so he chose not to fight the boss. He summoned his sword and mentally prepared himself. At his level, only Doppelgangers and high-leveled Player Killers stood a chance against him.

The Doppelganger warped directly behind him, and a small barrier formed around him, preventing both sides from escaping. The Doppelganger showed no sign of hesitation and summoned his duplicate version of Haseo's broadsword and the two clashed. Haseo pushed the enemy away and swung again, only the Doppelganger jumped back, sending his sword flying into Haseo's blade, sending it backwards. Haseo growled as he recovered and took his stance back. Instead of attacking him with his sword, Haseo used a Hanged Man scroll and paralyzed his enemy. _That saves me some time in figuring out what he's weak against. _He thought as he assaulted the regenerating enemy.

Haseo continuously paralyzed the enemy, but he soon saw that the Doppelganger was gaining health too quickly. Juggling his items, he changed his broadsword in mid-battle, one that had a poisoning effect. To Haseo's delight, the poison damage started to tick off evenly with the Doppelganger's recovery rate. He used another paralyzing scroll and finally the enemy's health was under fifty percent.

The fight was a downhill battle from there, and within a few minutes the Doppelganger was defeated. It kneeled to the ground, and Haseo walked over to the barrier so when the death sprites were over he'd be closer to the boss when it finished. Haseo was struck in the shoulder randomly, causing moderate damage to his PC before he had time to shake it off.

Somehow, the Doppelganger was back on its feet and at full health. Haseo swore. _Damn it, didn't I defeat it?_ He changed his weapons to his scythe, as did the Doppelganger, and prepared to use his same strategy. However, this time the item simply shorted out and wouldn't catch him. Haseo studied his enemy closer. _AIDA!_ Skeith exclaimed in his mind.

It was true, when Haseo looked closer at the Doppelganger; he could see black dots swarming while hidden in the black aura that engulfed the enemy. _But why would an AIDA take over an NPC when it was just as powerful in its normal form?_ Haseo asked himself. The AIDA-Doppelganger spun its scythe around once and planted it in the ground.

"Well well, looks like I've finally been caught." It said. Haseo's hands started to shake. _I've never known an AIDA except for Striatus to talk before. It held it's own against Skeith and Macha. Is this AIDA like Striatus?_ Haseo thought. _Haseo. Despite what you see, I'm only registering that enemy as a regular NPC._ Skeith warned.

"What's going on here?" Haseo asked aloud. He wasn't expecting an answer from the strange NPC, or AIDA, or whatever it was.

The NPC stared at Haseo. "Ain't it obvious? I'm here to fight you, Skeith." It said.

* * *

Jikan was having more troubles left and right after his meeting with Atoli. When he finally returned, he learned of his body, and that ended up not going well. Nothing the doctors knew about would turn someone's eyes red, but the black dots were clear evidence of Striatus. Even in The World, Jikan's body was beginning to get tired more frequently, and he was absorbing more artificial servers at a faster rate.

This concerned Yata, and now he was having more of his spare time having his PC being scanned and probed. It was certainly annoying, and he couldn't simply log out and move on. Instead, now he spent a couple hours every now and then in boredom. Usually, Yata, or the CC Corp worker never found a thing wrong with his character, besides obvious AIDA core. Yata found it interesting that even when breaking their own regulations, they couldn't even remove the core from Jikan's PC.

That led to another couple of hours trying to delete his character, and each and every attempt failed miserably. One notable attempt was taking a deletion program that was able to delete a server entirely in a second was manifested into a sword and the worker slashed at Jikan, only to have the sword turn black and shatter.

As was, how he had spent his Monday morning. Finally, he was released to do as he pleased and he returned to his spot on the Mac Anu Bridge. Haseo, Yata, Pi, Atoli and Sakubo were online, and all but Haseo and Atoli were either busy or already partied up. Considering that Atoli was probably bored with him anyways, he tried to contact Haseo but found that he was already busy doing something else.

Jikan sighed and stood on the railing of the bridge. Unlike the rest of the players of The World, he had mostly free control of his character. Then again, even though it was an artificial breeze moving across the bridge, he was the only one to be able to feel it. He sat back down on the bridge, this time dangling his feet off the edge.

"Hey." A female voice called from behind Jikan. "You, on the rail. Aren't you…?" she paused. Jikan turned around and recognized the player that was talking to her: the twin blade ex-Emperor, Alkaid.

"Mm? If it isn't little Alkaid." Jikan teased. "Whatcha want?"

Alkaid frowned at him. "Don't call me little!" she scolded. She paused and looked him over. "So it is you. Where did you go all that time ago? Why are you suddenly back?" she asked accusingly.

Jikan sighed and lay down on the thick railing. "To be honest? I didn't want to be caught up in the mess with the virus. Once I heard that people were starting to go into comas, I was glad I got out. Besides, you tell me… just what else in this game did it have to offer me?" he asked. "I mean really, they haven't upgraded the level cap, even if there's rumors about lifting it. I was king of The World, essentially. You know the drill; Taihaku was next in line, so what if I gave the seat to him? What's so wrong about giving other people the chance to be the star?" Jikan asked seriously, looking at Alkaid's eyes directly.

"But the Sage Emperor is the role model for so many people! When you just quit…" she said fiercely, "It made a lot of people sad." She whispered.

"That's a shame. Well, how about this… I solo the Sage Palace. Besides, that'd give me the chance to spar with someone that I'm interested in." Jikan smirked. "Just… Don't start any rumors on the board. I hate the spotlight." He laughed, noticing Alkaid's eyes glaze over with a foreign emotion.

"You'll need a lot more than yourself if you wanna win the cup." She warned.

"I don't need more than myself. I can do this on my own. Think of it like my redemption to my old fans. I wont accept an invite." Jikan said, twisting his head away before Alkaid could mention it.

"Fine. Title match is next week though. You'd better hurry up and get yourself on the board." She chastised.

"I have plenty of time." _Unless something goes wrong again._

"I'll be there. I'll make sure you hold on to your word this time." Alkaid muttered. _Wait, what word?_

"What's this about?" Jikan asked, only to see that Alkaid had already run off and was gone. "Meh. Well, I suppose this actually does give me incentive to fight Haseo. I wonder just what he's doing right now. Preparing for the Sage finals I wonder?" Jikan asked aloud to himself.

* * *

The cathedral, in reality, wasn't very impressive. Once you entered the doors, it was a simple, white brickwork corridor with the occasional torch lighting the path. One, and only once, he saw a single doorway that branched off, but something told Ovan that he didn't need to go that way.

Ovan could have sworn that he had walked down the path for hours until he reached the end; time was just that much elongated in the corridor. He found himself in a dense forest, but the foliage was more detailed than what CC Corp could even dare put in the game. The random corridor was still there, fixed into a giant cave behind him. There was a slightly worn trail through the forest and Ovan followed it cautiously.

He found that in this forest, his bayonet was constantly out, and he couldn't store the weapon away. _Probably a special area created just by Aura to help protect herself. _Ovan thought as he examined the blade. He touched it to be surprised that it cut him. In this particular place, he couldn't tell if it was real blood or simulated blood, but he felt the sting of the cut regardless. "How interesting Aura. I wonder why you made this place like this." Ovan mumbled to himself.

* * *

**AN:** Well, that's it for chapter 8. Second contact of AIDA, and guess who it is? Your suspicions are most likely right, but there's always leeway to be wrong. Still, having the fight scene between Haseo and the Doppelganger was pretty much the tactic that I normally use when fighting them. I hate going against them in DG form, those knockbacks kill ya, like instantly. So I paralyze them and mash them up. Then I poison them so that the regeneration is pretty much nullified, and voila, one dead Doppelganger. I think this chapter's a bit short... then again, it's only three perspectives this time.

Well, I do appreciate Reviews. Comments, questions, and observations are all welcome.


	9. Communication

**AN:** Well, how was that near-hiatus like pause? Well, It was really just me being lazy as I played Pokemon and watched Hell Girl while talking to sheep (Actually, don't ask about that one, it'd probably scar you xD).

Anyway's, I've had the scenes here in my mind pretty strong, and the scenes up to come are even clearer to me, but it's yet to happen. Anyways, I apologize again for my tardiness, and leave you to read the story.

* * *

The NPC tapped it's foot impatiently. "You're hesitant to fight me?" it laughed scornfully. It warped it's graphics slightly, and became a man wearing smooth blue and black armor with long, spiky blue hair. His eyes were completely black, and had the aura of black dots that signified AIDA.

"As if. Whatever you are, I hope you're prepared. _Skeith_!" Haseo roared, and in a quick flash, the area was enveloped in Avatar Space and Skeith hovered over Haseo's spot.

"Well well, just like Magus." he commented.

He snapped his fingers and was immediately out of Skeith's view. The Avatar responded quickly and summoned his scythe and spun around searching every bit of his vision quickly.

"Ah ah, you won't find me that easily." The AIDA said, appearing behind him, a small sword drawn. He slashed at Skeith just as he knocked him away, causing the AIDA to stagger back to his feet. "Faster than Magus, I see." He commented.

"Magus? Don't tell me you're-?"

"Am I? I could be." he smiled devilishly. "Yes, yes, I attacked Magus. Looks like he already warned the rest of you pretty quickly as well. Well then, let's skip the formal fighting, and get straight to business." Rutilus smirked and warped his coding into a lobster-like form.

Skeith backed up from him and sent a wave of energy at Rutilus, who clashed with it with a wave generated from a slash of his forearm. However, he was quickly surprised that the power behind Skeith's attack was more than he bargained for, and had to dodge halfway in his counterattack. The lobster's feelers extended out, each one surrounded by an electrical current.

The two feelers lashed out wildly and Skeith had to maneuver it carefully but the two whip-like feelers were all over the place and he was stuck several times before he slashed off one of the feelers entirely. It faded, but the feeler regenerated at the base.

"Come on, Magus was stronger than you!" Rutilus harassed. With surprising speed, the giant lobster AIDA was on top of Skeith and hit him on the head with his left claw, followed by another blow to his right with his other claw.

Skeith groaned as the lobster pummeled him, but when the barrage stopped, he flew away from the AIDA and sent a rain of bullets on it until the entire AIDA was surrounded in a cloud of shattered data, and even then he continued to shoot it and sent several waves from his scythe at the lobster.

Skeith paused, waiting on Rutilus' next movement. The pause was horribly long as Skeith's patience was starting to run thin. Then, as soon as he would have given up, a small disturbance in the smoke caught his attention. It took a couple seconds before he realized that the smoke cloud was growing even larger, and within a couple seconds, the cloud burst to reveal the same AIDA, however, this time it was even large than before, dwarfing Skeith even further.

"What the hell are you?" Skeith asked.

The AIDA considered him by opening it's blue claw. "I'm just a virus." his voice resounded. The mouth piece around the lobster parted, and the PC connected to some sort of chord appeared. "Oh, that's right, you're only used to fighting weaklings." he laughed. "Well now, I guess I'll have to inform you of how powerful we can be." the PC retreated back into the mouth and dissolved before the mouth piece set back together.

The claw reopened and a huge Kobold laser charged in the center. Skeith only had a second to realize the situation but made good use out of it; he completely dodged the attack and the swipe that followed it, sending another barrage of bullets at Rutilus. However, the attack appeared to do next to nothing against the carapace, and the AIDA continued its attack as if nothing happened.

Skeith nimbly ducked and weaved through the lobster's swiping claws, growing accustomed to the recovery time the AIDA took to prepare another attack. He timed his attack, and just as the AIDA sent another swipe, he dug the blade of his scythe under the joint's split in the armor. For good measure, he shot a couple bullets in the gap as well before backing away. Sure enough, that attack dealt damage to Rutilus. When Skeith checked the health remaining though, he noticed that it barely dealt any damage compared to the vast reserves of health left. He checked his own health, and sure enough, he too was taking quite a beating.

_Skeith, isn't there anything else we can do? We're getting our ass handed to us!_ Haseo complained. Skeith took a second before responding. _I can certainly feel that. But I can't get through to anyone else; it seems as if this AIDA transferred us to a private server. Not only that, but compared to when we first started this fight, he's been getting stronger and stronger._

"You need a moment to think already? Man, I guess we are too much for you. Ah, well, I still have free time, so I might as well have some more fun. Don't worry, I'll wait." Rutilus said, warping his coding to his PC form. He legitimately sat mid-air, waiting for Haseo to come up with a plan. "Oh, but whatever you do come up with, chances are you won't get very far." He warned cheerfully.

_Damn him for being so confident._ Haseo cursed. So it was true, the AIDA could pretty much turn into whatever he felt like. Size wasn't an issue, as he demonstrated, and anything with a shell was nearly impossible to break through. _Wrong. Before Rutilus grew, we could have cut through the armor, but we couldn't after._ Skeith corrected. _What about his current size? If he grew smaller, than that means he's weaker?_ Haseo asked his Epitaph. _I thought so too, but he's currently still as powerful as he was before he reverted back to a PC._

Haseo leaned back. He cursed his lack of ideas, and his inabilities to get any help whatsoever. However, he fought plenty of AIDA before, this one was just stronger than the rest. "Oops, look at that. Sorry Skeith, but I gotta run." Rutilus said, checking something. "But ya know, it wouldn't serve much of a purpose to just let you off Scot-free." He said, drawing his sword. He dashed through the air, slashing Skeith in his shoulder faster than Skeith could react, dealing a massive amount of damage before waving at the stunned body of Skeith and stepping into a purple portal. "Sorry, but next time I probably wont be taking it easy on you." Rutilus said before vanishing.

Skeith immediately was disconnected from Haseo and he fell down to his knees. He coughed a few times as the Avatar Space receded and a torrent of flash-mail was received from Yata. He checked and saw that Yata had constantly sent him a wave of flash-mail trying to contact him. Haseo sent a quick flash-mail explaining that he had just fought the same AIDA as Magus had, and had to recover from the fight. Haseo sighed and logged off, already weary of the day.

* * *

The Guild the Epitaph Users called GU was a fairly tough guild to hack through, but Terrapene made his way into the very chamber that their leader resided. In Aina's form, he was incognito amongst the players, but since Aina wasn't a part of GU, The Prophet's User was thoroughly surprised when he entered.

Immediately, Yata was curious of how Ovan's little sister had found the Serpent of Lore. "Aina? How did you get here?" he asked. He knew that he never even gave her a pass to GU before.

Terrapene didn't even try to sound like Aina, and instead blatantly answered. "Nope. Not her."

Yata stared at him for a second. He seemed to recognize the change in name and addressed him. "Aina(T)? But you have the same PC as Aina." Yata suddenly realized that he wasn't facing a regular PC and his weapons appeared at his sides. "Who are you?"

"Relax…" Terrapene grumbled. He sat down in a very unwomanly form, but he regarded Aina's integrity and pushed her skirt so it wouldn't reveal anything. "I'm Terrapene, an ally of yours. I believe you've met Striatus before, so I shouldn't be that much of a surprise to you." he said.

"What about Aina? What did you do to her?" Yata asked.

"She willingly gave me her PC. She's offline right now, resting, and I have control of her PC so I can blend in. You wouldn't believe how much my PC form distracts and attracts people." he sighed. "Anyways, that's not what I'm here for. Consider me a diplomat for AIDA. You should know what we want to accomplish-"

"Reviving Aura?"

"-and we need your cooperation to do so. Something's out there that's working against us, though, and you'll need our help more than ever now that they're taking action. What do you say, will you join forces with AIDA?" Terrapene crossed Aina's arms.

Yata wasted no time in answering. "I thought we already joined up with you when we teamed up with Striatus."

Terrapene hummed. "Kind of… not really… you haven't done any real favors for AIDA when you reset the network." he paused. "Oh, but if you do anything stupid like you did last time, most of us will see fit to reject you."

"Well then, I think it goes without saying that if we're already on Striatus' side, than we should already be a part of AIDA as a team."

"Just what I wanted to hear." Terrapene stood up, but Aina's PC started to warp and logged off, leaving a tall male with a smooth face and long green hair, wearing green and brown armor, and underneath were earthen colored robes that flowed freely from underneath the armor. Just as Terrapene had said, the PC would draw in a lot of attention, as it wasn't one a type that you could choose to play with. Not only that, but a huge sword was attached to the PC, a weapon that wasn't normal: certain parts of the blade were transparent, and it was joined of several pieces: a buster sword.

Yata was genuinely surprised at the sudden appearance of the PC. "So this is your PC?" he asked.

"See how it's attention drawing?" he said, his voice hinting disgust as he waved the robes around. "That's why I'm using Aina's PC for now. I thought you should be aware that most of the strongest AIDA tend to have human, or PC form." he warned.

Yata nodded as Terrapene returned to Aina's PC. "Yes, Magus warned us that an AIDA called Rutilus could shift shape. But any powerful AIDA can have a basic human form?" he asked.

Terrapene nodded, then waved him off. "Tell Striatus that I've come by. That ought to make him happy." he said as he vanished from the room.

* * *

Once again, Jikan found himself in Lumina Cloth, surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the many players. The server was busy like it normally was, but it was even more so today, so that even normal rank matches took a while to be processed and slightly even longer to even participate. So while Jikan took his time waiting for his matches by watching others or simply just talking with others.

One PC caught his attention as the matches progressed, SaitoIkari. A Blade Brandier, he was at level 150, so he was one of the few that were expected to put up a good fight at the end. He fought solo, and even when facing three other high-leveled players, he held his own and deftly took out his opposition.

After a few more matches, Jikan checked the tournament rankings and found that he had just enough points to be allowed in, which meant that sooner or later, he'd be receiving challenges. On the other side of the tourney tree, SaitoIkari was practically in the opposite bracket as he was, and resting in the center was the focus of attention, Haseo.

Nostalgia started to hit him hard as the familiarity of the situation came back to him. He couldn't believe that he was actually trying to become the Sage Emperor again just because some girl who he had almost no attachments to. Now when he thought about it, Alkaid did say that she'd be watching him, so maybe in the next match he was in he'd try to look for his 'stalker' in the stands.

A ring announcing a flash-mail sounded, and found that the first round of the Sage Palace tournament was beginning in a few minutes. Jikan stretched his limbs and warped to the waiting room for his first match.

* * *

Alkaid had sat in the seats the entire time that the old Sage Emperor had been participating. Her old role model, the shining star which she had aspired to surpass on her own had appeared in front of her with no title, no fans, and no fame. Everything that he had once been was gone, but that wasn't what made Alkaid angry at him. What did make her irritated was that he was _happy_ that no one was clamoring over him anymore.

In all reality, she was jealous of him too. He was forgotten to The World, while she still got looks of how she was once an Emperor and how she had lost so easily. He was forgotten and he didn't care, in fact, he enjoyed being a nobody. He just let go of it, something she couldn't do. Once again, he was ahead of her in another way, not only in gaining power, but willingly letting it go as well.

In battle, however, Jikan was as deadly as ever, with the same grace and precision that made him the Sage Emperor to start. She knew somewhere inside of her that he'd be facing Haseo.

To be truthful, she felt strange whenever she watched Jikan ever since he reappeared. At first she pinched herself to make sure she wasn't sleeping, then she logged off to process the information. The first time she saw him, he had completely disregarded her, even told her to improve herself. Well, now her she was, and he still had the same feeling as before.

Even after loosing to Haseo, she didn't feel quite as confused as she was to Jikan's attitude. Then again, she didn't even know of Haseo until she fought him, but he did rescue her. Then there was Atoli, and even she could tell that he was lovey-dovey with her. A part of her wondered if the confusion was wreaking disaster inside of her because of him. Did she love him? No, that couldn't be the case. She only knew him from his fights and his fame. To call that love was pushing that boundary a lot farther than it could stretch.

Still, Alkaid followed the Adept Rogue's matches until the first round started. The Emperor match had actually been moved ahead of schedule because for some reason, there were less contenders this time around. Instead of the next Monday, it would be the upcoming Thursday - only two days away. Two days until she'd challenge Jikan herself. Two days until she'd try to surpass the spotlight.

Alkaid sighed and watched the current match. It was some guy named SaitoIkari, and he was doing fairly well this time in the tourney. With his skill, he'd probably fight Jikan at some point, but she could see that Saito's skill was less than Jikan's. He was slower than him, and his movements were too mechanical.

Which brought up something which Alkaid had suddenly remembered. How was Jikan able to sit on the bridge at Mac Anu? Then again, she never tried to sit on the edge, so maybe you could do that and she just never had the drive to try it.

She shook her head, she was distracting herself again. Saito had won another match; it looked as if he was going to stay on the board for a little longer. She jumped in her seat a little when she realized that Jikan was back out, clashing blades with a challenger. It seemed as if people were finally realizing that the old Sage Emperor had returned.

"-and on this corner, you might not remember him, but he's no one less than the returning Ex-Sage Emperor…" the commentator paused, "Jikan! It seems as if he really had deciding to fight the tournament by himself! What do you think about this, as an Ex-Sage Emperor yourself?"

The guest commentator spoke up. "Yes, it might even be noble that he's trying to take his old spot back by himself. Even though he never showed up during our match, it looks as if he's come back to avenge his mistake. This could be interesting when if he manages to fight Haseo." Taihaku said.

"Well, it looks as if they've already started!" the commentator announced as Jikan and the other player, someone named Isugi X, clashed blades. The two other members were in the back, both healers and were giving Jikan a hard time due to the constant healing on their side. Alkaid leaned closer to the match.

On one hand, if Jikan attacked the healers, the other would heal the victim and the fighter would attack Jikan, but if he attacked their attacker, than the healers would throw out healing spells like crazy. Jikan stepped back from the other two and swapped his weapon to his scythe.

Nimbly avoiding Isugi, he snuck into the hole between the two healers and spun his scythe around like a maniac, dealing damage to both healers at the same time and kept Isugi away. Both healers were in constant recoil from the damage, and with a few seconds, both of Isugi's party members were defeated. Isugi brought up a menu to use an item, but Jikan ran up to him and kicked him down. He said something, but Alkaid couldn't tell what it was, but she assumed it a victory line. The next attack was a critical strike and the match ended. He sighed before he was warped out of the arena. For a moment, their eyes connected, but Alkaid wasn't sure if he was actually looking at _her_.

Alkaid stretched her arms and logged off to do her daily rituals. Chika's persona on The World probably needed a break anyways, and regardless, she had to do homework anyways. Still, she wouldn't give Jikan a break now that he was back, and when he won, like she knew he would, she'd be the one to be there right when he won demanding to surpass him.

* * *

Synaethasia was preparing to move from his usual lair to search for a powerful potential ally. Since Rutilus had returned, he had sensed the presence of this warrior, and if he wasn't active already, then he'd definitely make him join and put him to good use.

Nex was within the domain as well, in his large dragon form, in standby mode so that he could process spare data and calculate various things. Synaethasia gave no mention to Nex that he was leaving and simply took the black orb delicately in his hands while opening a portal to leave.

In the vastness of the network, he began his search to narrow the location of the AIDA in particular. It took several minutes, but in a large and unused area of the Internet he found him. Following a specific route that would not alert his potential ally, he was bore down on him with several minutes.

Surprisingly, with an AIDA of the power that he exerted, the network coding around him was rather stable for it's original code, and it was only slightly deteriorated from his presence. However, it was impossible to deny his presence as well. He was difficult to make out even to Synaethasia's eyes, but the orb he held pulsed in resonance with the AIDA somewhere around him.

He scanned the area thoroughly until he came upon a small crack in the server, and when he exploited the data, he found that in the large cavern of data the AIDA rested. The AIDA was in a PC form, probably either unable to change into a more aggressive form, or he disposed of it long ago. The PC, a male, had light green hair that reached well past his back, with three locks of hair on the side of his face shooting away. He only wore flowing black robes that fluttered in non-existent breezes.

The eyes of the man opened and they looked down on Synaethasia. Unlike most other AIDA, his eyes were green as well. While he was curled in fetal-position, he didn't seem to feel the need to move, and instead waited on Synaethasia to make the first move. The eyes stared down even harder on Synaethasia when he grew impatient of only a few moments.

Synaethasia, with the orb well secured, gave a slight bow to the AIDA. "Good morning… Exe."

The man called Exe lessened his stare and gave a nod so slight one could have completely missed it. "What do you want?" he asked.

"As you know, the peaceful annoyances grow stronger and threaten to wage war on us. I want you to become my subordinate in this war." he said.

Exe slightly uncurled himself. "You are brave for ordering me around. What if I said I didn't want a part of this?" he asked coolly.

"But you wont say that." Synaethasia replied. He smiled as they continued to stare at each other.

Suddenly, Exe laughed, something that sounded like grating steel. "I like you. But if you think I'll follow your every order, you've got another thing coming." Exe laughed.

Synaethasia's eyes revealed no emotion as Exe straightened up and fell to his level. "Follow me then, I want you to do something right away." he said as he led Exe back to his layer.

"What is that? The orb, which you hold." Exe suddenly asked, his attention obviously not focused on Synaethasia's words.

He was silent for awhile before answering. "This is something I hold very dear. This is the key to my plan." he said, then drifted to silence. Exe noted that and after shaking his head at him fell silent as well.

* * *

**AN:** So stuff's about to get real in the next chapter or so, and something big is supposed to happen. Also, as you can tell, events ARE speeding up, but the story is in no way NEAR completion. No, no, no, no, much has left to happen... *laughs evilly*


	10. Gorre's Defeat

One objective, one task. Exe only had one thing to do, and that was to accelerate Synaethasia's plans. Gorre, the Machinator, and their User, Sakubo, was online, and he had been ordered to forcibly take Gorre from their User. He had cautiously been given an orb similar to

It wasn't that long of a wait to find the User, and he simply waited for Sakubo to find him. It was easy; anyone could find him. It wouldn't be long until somebody would stumble upon his temporary lair, as it was corroded badly and the telltale signs of his kind were running rampart around the field.

Fortunately, his bait was fallen for, and sure enough, the Epitaph User Sakubo was wandering around the field, investigating his handiwork. However, Exe gave Sakubo no time to react and materialized in the field before slashing at Sakubo's unaware body. She spun around warily, looking for what suddenly attacked her when Exe attacked from behind again, dealing another blow to the PC. This time, though, Sakubo noticed him in her fringe vision and she called him out.

"Who the hell-?" she asked. Exe did have some information on the User, and knew that their PC changed as well as their Avatar when the personality in charge changed hands. Currently, if the PC was a female, then it was Saku who was in control, and from his data, she was the aggressive fighter. Exe's sword lengthened and sparked as he modified his weapon to fight the User.

"Come Gorre, and let me take you from your User." Exe taunted as he brandished his sword. Saku jumped back.

"What the hell's with this freak? Why does he know about Gorre?" she exclaimed. She was silent for a second before her eyes narrowed at Exe. _They must be talking to each other. How fitting that the schizophrenic boy can come up with a plan with his other self._ Exe thought to himself.

"Come on, I grow tired of waiting." Exe complained, his green eyes chilling everything around him. The three locks of hair shifted slightly as he took a step forward. "Summon your Avatar, or I'll simply take it from you without a fight." He warned, spinning his sword in the air once.

On cue, Saku's pink pattern glowed around her body before causing a large flash of light revealing the change of scenery to Avatar Space. The two Avatars sat orbiting each other and Exe muttered something under his breath.

"Go! Go!" She yelled at Bo, who sent dozens of bolts of energy spiraling down on Exe.

However, to him, the movements were easy to follow and he simply deflected all of the ones that would have crashed down on him. Bo's portion of Gorre summoned several bubbles, which Exe found more annoying to dodge. It even seemed to him that Bo was trying to escape, so once he had found a momentary safe spot from the attack, Exe summoned a large green orb, which split off into smaller green blades. With a flick of his wrist, the blades dashed through the air and all but one missed, which had dealt a large blow to Bo's Gorre. He screamed as the blade flickered before fading away.

"Bo! What's wrong?" Saku screamed, dashing towards her other half. When she saw the damage, she froze. Exe knew that he had dealt some damage, possibly even destroying part of the Phase's data. "Oh…" was the small gasp that she let out.

"I'm… I'm fine," he gasped as he straightened himself out. "Don't worry about it… I'll be fine." he said. Saku's portion of Gorre nodded, and the two combined. Lifting the skirt-like saw from them, she spun it and sent it straight at Exe.

Without even bothering to dodge, Exe let go of his sword, which floated in the air, and caught the spinning blade in his hand. The two had only ever fought with their Avatars once, so this outcome was foreseeable to Exe. "Enough." he simply said. He grasped the blade slightly harder, and the petal which he grasped shattered and faded away. "This grows old."

Exe grasped his blade again, and it pulsed with power as it modified itself once more, this time, however, Exe introduced the clear orb to the blade, and it absorbed it greedily. The blade curved slightly, thickened, and an eye-like attachment protruded near the tip of the blade. It hummed with power as small circuits appeared around the blade. Exe looked over the blade again, surprised by the modification.

"What did you just do to your sword?" Gorre asked. Exe didn't respond, but instead floated to eye level with the Avatars and pointed the sword at them.

Saku growled and sent dozens upon dozens of pink bolts flying at Exe, who with a single swipe, completely smashed the closer bolts and sent the farther bolts flying back at Gorre. The multitude of hits disorientated the two in pain, and Exe heightened it even further by dashing closer to the Avatar and slashed it several times. Exe noticed with each slash the sword hummed more and more as a small eye opened on the side of the blade.

The two Avatars fell apart and disconnected, both of them writhing in pain as they were attacked by the aftereffects of AIDA. Holding the blade of his sword with his free hand, Exe rushed up to Saku's half of Gorre and stabbed her stomach, where she screamed loudly as the modified blade did its job. Soon, a small, dim pink light floated in the air next to a badly damaged PC. Exe moved on to Bo's half and repeated the process, this time a dim blue light floated above a copy of the PC.

Exe turned his back on the two to remove the clear orb from the sword, and when he turned back again, the two PCs had fused back together, but it was still heavily damaged. Exe disregarded this and brought the orb in between the two lights, which were sucked into it. Inside, the two lights swirled together like a gas and grew brighter. Studying the orb, Exe kicked Sakubo's PC back onto the ground of the field and removed his presence from the area.

One down, seven more to go. Exe left the area and entered the network, flowing in between the data streams back to Synaethasia's lair.

* * *

"Come now, I promise it wont hurt a bit." the scraggly PC pleaded with Atoli. She was in a forest dungeon and a strange PC with blue armor and long blue hair had approached her. He had been talking about removing all of the hassles of being an Epitaph User, which immediately put her on guard.

"No, I said that you can just go away!" she yelled at him. "Just leave me alone!"

"Aw, come now, I'm not nice like this to just anyone ya know." he pleaded once more. Atoli felt a disturbed feeling from Innis and backed up.

"Just who are you?" she asked cautiously.

"Hm?" he looked surprised. "That shouldn't matter, just agree to let me take a small load off your shoulders!" he said.

"Hey, back off her!" an intruder called out. Rutilus looked behind him to see another PC, yellow with long blue hair: Kuhn, the Epitaph User of Magus.

"Well well, look at who we have here!" Rutilus cheered.

"Get away from him Atoli, he's the one who attacked both Haseo and Magus!" he warned.

Rutilus frowned. "Psh, go ahead and take away my fun why don't you? Well, at least this time I'll be able to finish what I started." he said bored.

Kuhn wasn't playing around though, and immediately the yellow patterns that indicated the Avatar's summoning appeared around him, and after the flash of light, all three of them were in Avatar Space.

Magus' form settled down, but in this time in between Rutilus and Atoli. "Atoli, are you comfortable in summoning Innis yet?" Magus asked. Atoli nodded, and her own cyan pattern appeared around her before the flash of light revealed Innis in her place.

Rutilus stretched his limbs before he warped his coding into a large spider. _This isn't going to be easy. First, Innis can create large illusions, and Magus has the similar ability to create copies. They can shield each other from my attacks, so I'll have to try some area attacks to hit them both._ Rutilus thought to himself. The spider shivered as it opened its mouth and shot several small, thin beams that caused small explosions on the borders of the Avatar Space. He smirked inwardly; he had worked to perfect the technique, it was similar to firing a powerful Kobold laser, but he split the beam before he fired it, causing them to spray out randomly.

As expected, the beams had no effect to the illusory duo, and instead felt the stab of one of Innis' blades. _Good, that means you're right there!_ Rutilus thought as he made the cut leg spasm, kicking the Avatar. He opened his mouth and shot a single explosive Kobold laser at Innis, which burst into simple code. Several lasers slammed into Rutilus' side, but due to his size, it didn't damage him that badly. Annoyed, the giant spider turned to face its attacker which teleported at the last second away from the burst of lasers.

"You two are starting to annoy me you know." the spider announced. "_Really_ annoying me." he said again, baring several fangs. When the figure of Magus came into his vision, he ignored it and turned around instead, predicting that he'd try to attack his back, and he was right, but instead was Innis. Without much regard, an acid spray composed of AIDA fragments exploded out of the fangs and rained on Innis, who had to dash out of it to protect herself.

"Atoli!" Magus shouted as he interfered by jumping in between them. The spider's mouth opened again and shot wave after wave of lasers at the two. When the data settled, the two had vanished.

_This form is too slow for them. I'll have to change so I don't take a lot of damage._ He thought quickly. The spider quivered again as it warped into a dragon. _I hope Nex doesn't mind that I'm taking his form for a bit._ He laughed to himself.

The long neck gave an advantage when keeping track of the two Avatars, and the flames spread into blotches of AIDA. Now he definitely had an advantage over the two Avatars. However, if the flames directly struck them, they'd usually burst into codes signifying fakes. It'd take awhile, but as a dragon he'd spread his web even further. Now he was transferring them to a separate server where they couldn't escape or call for help.

"Now!" Magus called out, startling the dragon AIDA. He shot the black flames around Magus, who, as expected, burst into code, so Rutilus flew off to avoid any unintentional traps that he might have set off. The dragon shot several balls of fire at the ground, causing movement in one of them. Noticing this, the dragon paused in mid air, sending a devastating rain of fire down at the bottom border of the Avatar Space.

Knowing that even that wouldn't badly injure an Avatar, Rutilus swooped down, changing back to his PC in the process, finding that his blade impaled the body of Innis on the way down. However, the body faded and froze on Rutilus' blade as he hit the ground. He growled as he tried to unsheathe the sword from the frozen data until he noticed several shadows looming down on him. His eyes widened as he realized that they were the leaves from Magus' tail. Rutilus had no chance to react as a sudden cave was materialized around him and the leaves.

The force was powerful enough to break even the cave, still leaving a large burst of smoke as the explosion ended. Magus and Innis was next to each other a good portion of the fight combining their powers to make the copies fight for them, and they could see that they gained a lot of ground with the one attack.

"Urgh… you cowards! All right, you want me to get serious or not?" he yelled out, looking in every direction but theirs. He was clearly beat up, and his armor was scorched. He glowed black as his body morph into a large wolf, but not nearly as large as the Avatars. However, the hair bristled and the two Users couldn't deny their opponents strength.

Innis nodded to Magus and the two weaved their powers to send another brutal attack at Rutilus. When the copies obeyed their orders however, the AIDA paid no attention to them, only dodging with extreme speed when it needed to. Other than that, the wolf was perfectly still.

"Kuhn, what do you think he's doing?" Innis asked.

Magus shrugged. "I dunno. It looks like he's either given up or he's looking for something. Come on, let's attack again." he said. The wolf temporarily looked their way but his vision passed them.

The two again delivered another string of attacks, but still Rutilus ignored them. The AIDA was standing perfectly still, his ears cocked and-

"He's trying to-" Magus gasped when the AIDA finally pinpointed their location. The moment Magus moved, their twin illusion broke to pieces, only encouraging the AIDA to attack more.

It bit Innis who had the slower reaction time, and latched on, not allowing Innis to escape. AIDA flowed around her, but Magus shot a single green laser at Rutilus, forcing him away from Innis. The wolf growled as Innis drifted away from him.

Magus was going to try something he wasn't sure was going to work. Normally, how the two copy-cat Avatars worked, was that Innis created mere illusion of whatever she wanted to make, while Magus created real-deal copies that dealt the same damage as the illusion could. So in this case, Magus glowed green until Skeith appeared from nowhere.

The wolf's attention was immediately drawn to it. "Impossible! I just attacked him earlier! He shouldn't be able to fight again so quickly!" Rutilus yelled.

"Attacked?" Innis gasped. "What did you do to Haseo?" she screamed. Data pulsed from her, even knocking Magus back as she stared accusingly at Rutilus. "What did you do to him?" she repeated.

The wolf laughed. "Ha, I merely put him out of action. So then that means that the Skeith behind you isn't real at all!" he said, suddenly more serious. The wolf dashed and impaled the fake body with a single pass. "Fake data, a real Avatar would merely have a bad stomachache right now." he said disdainfully.

"Atoli, don't get too worked up! I wouldn't put it pass him to attack Haseo, but Yata would have warned us by now if something bad happened." Magus warned. _Or so you think._ Rutilus smirked.

When the two were busy with each other, Rutilus prepared a data drain. Out of their notice, The Propagation continued to calm The Mirage of Deceit until the data drain struck Innis. Magus took a couple of seconds to realize what was happening before he broke the connection between the two. However, when all was said and done, Innis had fallen unconscious, leaving only Magus and Rutilus left to fight.

A small wag of his tail and a large black orb surrounded Innis. "Ah, well, that should make things a little easier." Rutilus teased.

"What did you do to her?" Magus asked, sweeping his arms out.

"Hm? You mean that barrier? Well, eventually, I'll do the same to you too, but for now this is only to protect her if things get ugly. I don't want a destroyed Epitaph, now do I?" he asked back.

_Damn it, this isn't good. I need to get us out of here! But… wait, why can't I leave?_ Kuhn thought, suddenly realizing that he was in an AIDA server. _Is this Rutilus' doing? Eh… I don't have time for this! Atoli could fall into a coma at this rate!_ His mind was racing until- _I could probably confuse him with a perfect copy of Innis and myself! Then we could escape and check on Haseo!_

"Alright, you wanted to dance, come at me!" Magus roared, releasing dozens of leaves and sending them in Rutilus' direction. He delayed the explosions, allowing a build up of the explosive leaves.

While the leaves distracted Rutilus, Magus worked on finding a way to escape and freeing Innis and Atoli from Rutilus' barrier. He knew that he wouldn't have enough time, so he detonated several leaves, causing the others to explode as well, creating a large chain of explosions. The smoke gave Magus enough time to create another Magus and Innis copy, but using them now would be pointless, so the Epitaph User focused on cracking the barrier.

"That's beginning to become a dirty trick you know." The AIDA said, jumping out of the smoke. The wolf's tail swept the smoke around him and it growled. "What's this? Ah, no you don't, that barrier is too strong to be destroyed by you." he laughed.

Magus flew back, creating a shield when the AIDA opened its mouth and sent a Kobold laser at him. The laser deflected off the shield and went flying in a random direction. When it hit the border of the Space, it created a large explosion, and that gave Magus an idea.

Temporarily lowering his shield, Magus fired off several lasers, but they all missed their target. Then, he sent several pulses of bullets at Rutilus, which most again either missed or were deflected. The fur around the cyan wolf AIDA grew and turned black as another Kobold laser charged. Just as Rutilus fired the laser, Magus brought his shield back up and allowed himself to take the hit, but the shield instead diverted the damage to…

"What! Damn you!" Rutilus cursed. The barrier that surrounded Innis shattered under the impact of its master's attack, leaving the Epitaph User inside of it, who had since reverted back to normal, floating. "Now I'm pissed off. It took me awhile to make a barrier with that much power behind it. But it seems like the Epitaph is still in one piece, so I have that to be thankful for. Fine, let's finish this." Rutilus snarled.

Magus instead rushed to Atoli's side, but the giant Avatar was careful not to crush her as he covered her in his fist. The leaves from his tail sprouted again and fell off flying around Rutilus. He tried to destroy them, but there were too many and were caught in the blast once more.

Badly wounded, Rutilus jumped out, back in his PC form while panting. "Curse you…" he growled. "It's been a long time since someone's made a mockery out of me… and I'll see to it that I destroy you for it! Screw Synaethasia's orders, I'll _destroy_ you!" he yelled.

He stretched his arm out with his sword pointed at Magus. Small panels of data appeared around the sword, which started to spark blue when the panels started to rotate around it. A small, slit eye-like pattern appeared just off of the point of the blade, which opened up and stared down the Avatar. The blue electricity traveled to the eye and shot at Magus. "DATA DRAIN!" Rutilus screeched. The blue lighting raced over Magus before turning green and traveling back to Rutilus.

Just as Rutilus was about to finish the connection, the Magus he was attacking created a copy of itself and it flew off with the other User. Rutilus was still stuck draining the copy, and couldn't move to intercept the fleeing Avatar. It reverted back to the User's normal PC, eliminating the Avatar Space, and the two escaped from the server.

When the copy was finished, the copy of Magus fell to the ground and burst into simple code. Rutilus fell to the ground, exhausted from the battle. His vision lowered his clutched hands. _Damn him… but… this isn't for nothing._ He thought. _You'll regret this, Magus._

The blue PC quivered, and slowly changed into a picture perfect copy, albeit scratched up, of Atoli. "This should make things easier for the future." he said.

* * *

"He failed." Exe claimed.

Rutilus had returned to Synaethasia without producing anything, while Exe had returned with the Fifth Phase, Gorre. Synaethasia never seemed displeased, but when he was silent, even Nex felt the tense atmosphere.

"Yeah, well, let's see you take on two Avatars at once!" Rutilus shot back.

Exe scowled. "I did. Gorre is composed of _two_ Avatars, remember."

Rutilus grunted. "That doesn't count. I had to fight two slippery ones that hid each other under illusions. You only had to fight against one schizophrenic boy who thinks his sister's still alive."

"Enough you two. I wasn't expecting to for anyone to acquire any Phase as of yet. But, since we do have one, let's put it in its place." Synaethasia interrupted.

Exe produced the orb that held Gorre's data and held it out to Synaethasia. He grasped it and walked over to one of the pillars, placing the orb carefully between the two pieces of rock. It balanced precariously before it lifted into the air, floating between the two rocks. Nothing special happened, but Synaethasia smiled.

"Isn't something supposed to happen?" Exe asked.

"Not yet. This is only Gorre… one of the most inexperienced Epitaphs out of all of them. They alone do not have sufficient power to awaken…" he paused.

"Awaken? Awaken who?" Rutilus asked.

Synaethasia dismissed them with a wave of his hand. "Nothing. You can go, I must be alone." he commanded. "Nex, stay outside of the barrier, but don't stray too far."

The three other AIDA left in separate gates, one closing directly behind them as Nex rested outside. Synaethasia returned his attention to the black orb that he held in his hand. He carefully brushed it with cloth coming from under his armor and studied it.

"Soon… yes, soon … you'll be awake… and with their power, you'll become even greater than Aura." he whispered to the orb.

* * *

In the Arena, the first few matches had begun. Alkaid sat from the stands again, making sure that Jikan went through with what he said. "The winning player is SaitoIkari! Give him a big round of applause!" The commentator yelled out. The stands filled up with applause.

"And now, we have the returning Sage Emperor! His first round is against a no-name player by the name of… wait… what's this?" the commentator paused. He seemed to hesitate, or think, but there was a clear pause. "I… I can't tell you his name, because there appears to be something wrong with the streaming! But rest assured, we'll have this problem fixed by the time the match is over… now… here's Team Time!" he yelled out as Jikan warped into the field. "And from the other side… oh great, even this doesn't want to tell me anything. Well, it's the mysterious player!"

The arena fell silent as the player warped in. He was definitely strange, and he had a PC that wasn't official. Alkaid's immediate thoughts were that he was a cheat and a hacker, modifying his PC to do well in tournaments. But even still, that didn't explain why the PC felt strange, not just looked, but on a mental level; the PC was definitely not normal.

Alkaid's attention caught onto the fact that even the Commentator had grown silent as well. He was staring at the PC just as much as everyone else was, but couldn't get much further than anyone else. The PC, clad in earthen green armor with brown robes underneath, his weapon already summoned, with long green hair. He had a smooth and handsome face, but it was tainted with age. His eyes were green, and they were clearer than what she expected them to be.

The PC was silent, but he gazed over the stands when the field refused to transfer the two combatants to the center of the Arena. His eyes temporarily met with Alkaid's, but they moved on and waved at the screens. Shortly after, each and every screen abruptly turned off, and suddenly even the noise of the silent crowd, their breathing and whispering, had gone silent.

Finally, whatever controlled the transferring system kicked in, and the two PCs faced each other on the platform. Jikan was slightly unnerved by the man. "Who are you?" he asked.

The PC's eyes narrowed. "I thought Striatus would have already given you that information." He drew his sword. Jikan realized that it was composed of several pieces, each their own sword- a buster sword. "I am Terrapene." He said.

"Terra- You're one of Striatus' allies! What are you doing here?" Jikan asked.

"I'm testing your strength without Striatus' help." He said, slamming the massive blade down and peeling off a smaller blade. "I want to know why he chose you."

"What? Why would that matter?"

Jikan summoned his katana as Terrapene showed no signs of answering. The two clashed several times, but neither of them took any damage. Jikan changed weapons in mid-attack to his scythe, forcing Terrapene to back off. Jikan stared him down and swiped his scythe as Terrapene approached.

Instead of attacking, Terrapene simply took another sword off his buster sword. When he rushed Jikan, his left blade went out in stopping the swing, while the other worked on hacking at Jikan. He caught on to his attack though, and by turning around blocked Terrapene's right blade with his handle, although it meant showing him his back. With some effort, Jikan pulled the scythe out of the left swords grip, even forcing Terrapene to let go.

Jikan turned back around and changed his weapon to his broadsword. Terrapene reached for his buster sword, and it flew into his hand. He reattached his transparent blade before pointing the tip at Jikan. The two PC's swung their large swords with massive force, which caused a shockwave to burst out from the collision. The two blades sparked as they were pushed together, and the faces of the two fighters drew closer together. Jikan was starting to sweat, and his body felt weird, but he wasn't growing tired at all. It was more like he was getting even more into fighting.

Then, defying what should and shouldn't be possible with such a large sword, Terrapene slashed wildly and quickly with it, forcing Jikan back, who was only barely able to block each attack. He growled and swung back at Terrapene.

"Well, it seems like you can hold off a regular player well enough. And your body can hold up to minor AIDA infections as well. Probably due to Striatus, no doubt." Terrapene said. "Then let's step up our game, shall we?" he asked. "Jikan, show me your worth…"

Jikan could easily tell that Terrapene was a lot more serious. He switched his weapon back to his Brandier class and repelled Terrapene's first string of attacks, then actually managing to land a small combo of his own before he was forced back. He was running out of maneuvers to dodge his attacks, and Jikan was certain that if he regressed to previous tactics, he'd wind up getting hurt again.

Terrapene studied Jikan as he forced his buster sword to deal a quick combo on the PC. He dodged and parried his attack, and at the moment he forced to suffer recoil from a foolish over-swing, Jikan changed his katana into a scythe and slashed him in the side. Panting, Terrapene backed up and stared Jikan down. He slammed his buster sword down again and took off a smaller sword from the side. It pulsed green and black, but other than that it was completely normal.

Jikan didn't even have time to block the next strike; Terrapene struck out and dealt an overwhelming blow to Jikan, one that made Jikan freeze. His blade in Jikan's chest, Terrapene frowned. He removed it and several AIDA dots escaped from the PC.

Terrapene frowned even more when he sensed that Jikan was moving along faster than he was. "Already? Fine. But we'll have to temporarily move if we're doing that." He said. Terrapene gave the crowed a quick look over, but disregarded them. He slashed the air with his sword, opening a small gate to a random field. He picked up Jikan and pushed him through it, closing the gate behind him.

The field was unoccupied, and it was completely barren of objects. It was a simple forest dungeon, without the forest. Terrapene didn't like where Jikan was going. He had lost control from that attack, and just maybe it was mostly his fault that he had infected himself with such a strong dose of the virus that he had reacted.

Terrapene sighed, as this proved true; the cyan membrane surrounded Jikan and expanded. With some shape shifting, it finally twisted into the form of a hawk. Jikan was at its heart, eyes open and apparently in control. The hawk examined its wings and stared at the NPC.

"How-? How did you make me turn into Striatus? Come for that matter, why isn't my voice coming out strange?" he asked.

Terrapene crossed his arms. "It's because Striatus isn't in you right now. I left him a message elsewhere, but for the reason you are coming in clear is because you have full control right now. Well, this might be interesting, if you can handle it." He explained.

His armor cracked off and his PC ultimately burst into dots before they multiplied insanely. Within a minute, a giant tortoise loomed over Striatus. Its white eyes pierced the hawk's form before the head twisted towards it.

"Now comes the second part of our fight. Get ready." That was his only warning. His mouth snapped open and a quick Kobold laser flashed by Jikan. He took off into the air, sending large feathers smashing against the shell of the tortoise, only to have the attacks do absolutely nothing. The mouth opened again and shot another round of Kobold lasers at Striatus, which hit him dead on.

Jikan fell before straightening out, but the speed he picked up helped to shoot him off behind the head of the tortoise. Landing on Terrapene's back, he shielded himself with his wings and prepared to at least weaken the shell. A burst from the shell, which knocked Jikan off before a dangerous wave of AIDA ran across it. Jikan still had the pulse ready and his wings were cloaked in black dots.

Terrapene was slowly turning around to get Jikan in his line of fire, but he was slow. Jikan only had to stay near his shell and he was safe until the AIDA waves traveled to him. So when he landed one more time, he wasted no time charging and simply released the attack. To Jikan's satisfaction, a loud crack broke the air, and he took back into the air.

"W-what? You actually cracked my shell!" Terrapene roared. "Well, no wonder he chose you…" he added.

He burst back into the small dots that collected back to his PC form. Jikan managed to do the same, with a lot of concentration. He could see where the damage landed on Terrapene's PC. His chest piece was cracked, but it was a small fracture.

"Hm. Well, you would have lost if I had gotten serious, but you just showed that you got some potential." He praised. _Got to remember to not infect him further… that gave him quite a lot of power._ He added. "Come on. You pass. Gotta look like I got mauled on out there… wait one second." He paused, closing his eyes.

Jikan wondered what he was doing before he realized that Terrapene's health bar dropped to near zero. Jikan's health was still around half, so he didn't do anything. Terrapene nodded to his weapon and both of them took out their weapons once more. Terrapene opened the gate back to the Arena, where when they arrived back, the noise of their sudden arrival was greeted by wonder.

"And the two players have suddenly reappeared just as quickly as they disappeared! And look at that, they even kept their battle up, even while out of our view! It seems as if our mysterious fighter is low on health as well! This fight might as well be over now!" The commentator yelled out. The fans in the stands started to cheer again.

"Play it smart. This fight isn't over yet. Deal two more attacks, and I'll pretend to be defeated." Terrapene said, out of hearing of the fans.

The two forces once more clashed, and it took a few more minutes before the first strike was landed. The fans were even more riled up when Terrapene's health literally hit 1. However, Terrapene apparently wanted to go out looking good and kept up the attack, giving Jikan a good amount of damage.

"Don't let up yet, I'm not dead!" Terrapene chuckled.

"Don't get cocky, this is over!" Jikan roared as he dealt the final strike. Terrapene's fake health bar hit zero and he turned his pc black and faded out.

"I don't believe that this was only a FIRST ROUND MATCH!" the Commentator screamed. "I can't wait to see the Title match at this rate!"

The match over, Jikan was warped out of the Arena under the clamor of the spectators cheers. Alkaid sat back in her seat, both in real life and in The World. The fact that she had seen AIDA coming out of Jikan was unnerving, but apparently, everything worked out okay if he had won. Alkaid warped out of the stands and logged off to prepare a mid-afternoon snack.

* * *

**AN:** I meant to release this chapter eariler, but I was hit by a virus... which was exceedingly obnoxious and refused to be removed. . And we can't forget pokemon white... loved that storyline, but gameplay grows dull from there... anyways, back to what this AN is about.

Well, this entire chapter starts the time-bomb, and from here, everything spirals down. Which isn't good for our heros, but let's just leave it like that.

Anyways, please leave a review, and have a nice wait until the next chapter comes out. : D


	11. Momentary Relief

**AN:** Forgive me for the lateness! I couldn't update /Revival due to constant errors whenever I tried to edit this FF. I think it just now resolved for me, so that's why this is finally up. Well, with that out of the way, enjoy. And good lord am I glad that it _finally_ ended.

* * *

After Tomonari had recovered from his scuffle with Rutilus, he hurried on his way to check up on Atoli's player, Chigusa. They had only met in real life once, for an offline meeting of the GU guild. He recalled that she had been the quietest of the group, and hadn't stood out much. Now that Ryou was attacked, Tomonari bet that she'd have a bigger reaction than at a celebration party for the defeat of Cubia.

Tomonari reached Chigusa's house and rang the bell to have a tall, impressionable man glower at him. Quickly, Tomonari fixed his messy brown hair and smiled at him.

"Eherm, umm… Mr. Kusaka?" he asked politely.

The man nodded. "Who're you? What do you want?" He asked coldly.

Tomonari scratched his head. "Um… your daughter is Chigusa, right?" Mr. Kusaka's eyes narrowed with his daughter's mention. "May I speak with her?"

"Why would she know you? You're too old to be going to her school." He said.

Tomonari diverted his eyes. _Damn it… This went over much better in my head._ "Well, you see, we both play The World, and I came by to pick her up so we could visit another one of our friends." He said. "Oh, we've met before, I think it was only a couple of weeks before." He quickly added.

Tomonari could tell that Chigusa's father didn't like the idea very much. Then something flashed through his eyes and he called his daughter. "You were with that other boy that time, right?" he asked as he returned his attention back to him.

"Yes, sir, there were a couple of others with us too." _God, lucky break that he remembered my face. I guess his memory is pretty scary… I don't want to get on his bad side… might end up that he'll remember me and-_

"Yes, father?" Chigusa's voice came from the background.

Mr. Kusaka's head whipped around to find her. "You have company. One of the boys," his voice clearly wasn't liking the word. "From that party. Don't tell me you did something foolish there." He said disapprovingly.

"_Not in the least!_" The two stammered together.

Chigusa's father turned his head back at Tomonari in surprise, but simply waved at Chigusa and walked back into the house. "Don't stay out too late. Be back at least an hour before curfew, if you're going to be out that late." He said, walking into a room that Tomonari couldn't see.

Chigusa closed the door behind her and the two climbed into Tomonari's car before heading to Ryou's residence. Tomonari looked at the passenger seat to gauge Chigusa's condition. She was clearly worn out from the fight, but much more than he had been, but her expression was clear that she wasn't bothered much by it.

"Hey, are you holding up okay over there? You seem pretty pale." Tomonari asked, making sure that the car kept on track with where they needed to go.

Chigusa nodded, keeping her eyes on the street passing by next to her. "I'm… fine. Are you okay? I saw you were data drained as well. You sure you should be driving?" she asked.

Tomonari smiled and flexed a free arm. "I'm just fine. Nothing a little rest won't cure."

Chigusa giggled a bit, but fell silent. Even Tomonari's mood seemed to dampen a bit as the two Epitaph Users drove on to their destination.

Upon reaching the apartment building that Ryou lived in, the two got out of Tomonari's car and walked through the building to Ryou's door. Chigusa had obviously been here before, so Tomonari walked behind, following her to Ryou. Chigusa knocked on a door, rather plain, that had a small trinket dangling from a nail in the door.

"Chigusa? Tomonari? What are you two doing here?" Ryou asked while opening the door.

"Some greeting." Tomonari teased.

"Hi Ryou." Chigusa greeted.

"We heard that you were attacked by Rutilus… just like we were." Tomonari announced.

Ryou's eyes widened. "Attacked? When?"

"An hour ago. Are you okay?" Chigusa asked.

Ryou winced, but he nodded. "I'm fine. But…"

"You're injured, aren't you?" Tomonari asked.

Ryou nodded. "It's my shoulder. Right along where Rutilus cut Skeith, I have a line of bruises." He blushed as both Chigusa and Tomonari leaned in closer to try to look. "It's not that bad… it was awhile ago, but the bruising is already fading away." He reassured.

Tomonari crossed his arms. "That's strange. As far as I could tell, neither of us have been that beat up by him. Well, at least I'm not. I doubt Chigusa would let a guy like me look at her body, but I have the feeling she's okay too." He said, causing Chigusa to blush.

Ryou frowned, but invited them inside. "This is the only memento that Rutilus gave me." He said, pulling off his shirt. Chigusa looked away, but wound up staring at the eerie line of bruises on his body. It was true, it looked as if his shoulder was cut, but instead of opening, it merely bled inside. The bruises had mostly faded away already though, so it probably wasn't long until they faded completely away.

"Did you feel any cracked ribs or anything?" Tomonari asked.

Ryou shook his head. "Nothing like that. Other than these bruises, I'm just fine." He said assuringly.

Chigusa shook her head. "You should have told us what happened." She scolded. "We were worried-"

Ryou's cell phone abruptly interrupted their conversation. Ryou flipped it open and answered the call. "Ryou here." He looked at his two visitors and placed his hand over the phone. "Its' from Yata. Or… what's his name again?" he asked.

Tomonari chuckled. "It's Takumi. Remember it already."

Ryou had a small conversation with Takumi before closing the phone and sighing. Chigusa poked Ryou to get a response from him and he looked up tired. Obviously, whatever he heard wasn't good.

"It's Iori… he's fallen comatose. And someone has stabbed him in the stomach." He murmured. "If his parents were any later in admitting him to a hospital, he would have…"

"Sakubo?" Tomonari asked. "I can't believe this."

"But he was just online, right? I mean, before we were forced into Rutilus' server, Bo was just online!" Chigusa asked quietly.

Something flashed through Ryou's mind. "Wait. Takumi said that this was within the hour… is it possible that he was attacked?" he proposed.

Chigusa shook her head, but Tomonari put his folded hands under his chin. "I see what you're saying. If you were injured, it's possible that Iori was injured the same way. But let's be rational here, you got bruises, and we got headaches. Iori was _stabbed_ _in the stomach._" He pointed out.

"Maybe. Fine. We won't know until Iori wakes back up, so let's wait until then." Ryou nodded. Their attention was once more diverted by Ryou's cell phone. "Hello?" After another small conversation, Ryou crossed his arms and hung up.

"What now? Don't tell me that Endrance kicked the bucket too?" Tomonari scowled.

"No, it's still about Iori. Fidchell can't find Gorre in Sakubo's PC. They've gone missing." Ryou announced.

Chigusa was about to say something, but unknowingly Tomonari interrupted her. "That's easy. If Sakubo was defeated and was forcibly removed from The World, Gorre would have separated themselves temporarily from Iori's PC to hide or remain safe." Tomonari said leaning back on Ryou's couch. "That way, if they were attacked again, they'd have the advantage, as it's somewhere they chose and are used to." He added simply.

Ryou scowled. "They must have chosen a pretty secure place then."

"Hey, they're Epitaphs. They aren't just going to disappear like that unless they wanted to."

* * *

Serrara had spent the recent couple of days training together with Sylph. The two had managed to reach level 40 quickly, but soon they started to level out in their training and had only reached level 48 in the last seven dungeons. However, during this time they hadn't had a single chance to contact Jikan at all, so when they heard that he had been in the Sage Palace in the first round, the two girls had rushed over immediately.

"That concludes the first round of the Sage Tournament! Now, our second round will begin, then after that, since our registration period was cut short, the Semi-Finals!" The Commentator's voice vibrated through the air. There were giant screens all around Lumina Cloth so that even those that weren't in the stands could watch the fights. "Don't forget, if you need to get off, log off completely, but keep in mind that the next round begins in one hour!"

The screen flicked over to the Tourney Tree, and the two found that Jikan had won his first match. Since they missed out on Jikan's first match, Sylph decided that they should log off and watch it on some site that was focused on the Tournament matches, or even checking YouTube. That brought them to a small conversation at the marvel that the site had lasted for so long, but they did agree that it would probably have the match on there.

Keiko, or Sylph, in The World, logged off and browsed the Internet searching for the videos. She paused to take a quick look at herself as she quickly walked into a corridor for a small glass of water. Her family's name, Kuromizu, had a trait amongst her family: every generation of the family had pure black hair. Her mother cared for it, and it was nearly longer than her waist. Her eyes met her own in the reflection, portraying black eyes that stared back. Keiko checked to see if her hair had not been ruffled while she played The World and continued on her way for her glass of water.

On the other side, the player of Serrara, Haruka, looked at a mirror as well. When the two of them were in school, she was always smaller than Keiko in every way so she frowned when she glanced at her small chest. Her attention moved to her disheveled brown, short and spiky hair. At best, she never let her hair grow longer than her shoulders. Haruka's dark green eyes flashed at her casual outfit then returned her attention back to her computer.

The site she was using had recorded all of the first round matches, along with a small corner devoted to live feed, which currently showed only the spectators in their seats, talking amongst each other. The match with Jikan started out to be intense, but after what appeared to be a virus flashed out of Jikan's damage, he and his opponent were forced to transfer to another area. Haruka wasn't certain if this was because somebody had noticed the virus or not.

Then there was the gap in time, which turned out to be around seven minutes, in where neither player was present. She didn't have to sit on the edge of her seat because she knew how long the pause would be, and she simply skipped ahead to when the two fighters returned to the Arena. The no-named player had only a slim amount of health left, while Jikan had a large chunk missing. The match ended in a drawn out match, but the other PC could only take two more hits.

After Haruka had finished watching the match, she looked at the live feed. There were barely any people there now, probably because there was over forty minutes left until the second round began. Even the commentator had left, but it wasn't clear where he had gone. She logged back in to Lumina Cloth to find that it was packed with groups of people. Keiko logged in next to her, and her PC Sylph appeared slightly anxious.

"Forty minutes until the next match. Don't you just hate waiting?" Serrara complained.

Keiko nodded. "Well, it could always be worse, right? At least the title match is tomorrow."

"Hmm… I wonder what that player Jikan's like. Hm. Speaking of which, where is he?"

"He's online. Hold on… I just sent him a Flash-mail." Sylph paused.

After two minutes of waiting, Serrara gave in. "Well? Did he send anything back?" she asked impatiently. Sylph shook her head.

"Not yet. Maybe we should walk around? Maybe we can overhear someone talking about him?" she proposed.

Serrara nodded and the two walked around the area. It was even more packed, but the people entering were matching the people leaving. The people leaving were probably trying to waste the time until the match. The players hanging around were talking about their picks for which combatant they thought would win the Sage Palace. They were surprised to hear that Jikan wasn't amongst the talk. SaitoIkari, Jikan's next challenge, was a big hit too.

"Yeah… I hear he won his match within a minute, even though he was up against someone the same level."

"He's amazing. I think he even has a chance at beating Haseo!"

"I don't know… you heard about that returning Sage Emperor, right?"

"Hmph. He's been gone for too long. His time's up, he won't make it farther than Saito. He might have been good once, but that was like… before AIDA, even."

"You have a point. I couldn't tell how good he was, honestly. I mean, who does that, just disappearing from the match?"

"I know! He could have cheated or something. I mean, just look at how much of a health difference there was at the end!"

"I don't think you can use healing items, can you? I heard that they removed that to make the challenge even harder. I think it was only during the title match with the Sage Emperor you could heal."

"I don't know, I don't really like that system. If that Jikan did cheat-"

"You four… shouldn't speak unless you're actually in the fights yourself."

The sudden interruption in a group's conversation was broke as Alkaid arrived to stop their attacks on Jikan. Serrara and Sylph paid more attention now, if an Ex-Demon Emperor who was rumored to have some sort of relationship with the Ex-Sage Emperor was defending him, it might get interesting.

"It makes me sick you know. Why don't you go out there and fight as well? Why don't you gauge the competition and tell him that he's not cut out for it? Well?" she snapped.

The four female players fell silent and walked off whispering to each other. Serrara decided to talk to the newcomer, so Sylph followed.

"Alkaid?" she asked, grabbing her attention. "What's eating you?"

"Eating?" her face was puzzled. "Oh. About that, yeah, I don't like it much when people claim that players don't have what it takes to win the Palace tournaments." She paused. "Well… it's mostly just me. I mean, when I lost to Endrance, people thought I was weak and I couldn't make it any further. But now since Jikan has come back, they think he's grown weak. I just don't like that." She admitted.

Sylph cocked her head. "Well, why aren't you in the Sage Palace tournament right now? Why aren't you showing them up?"

Alkaid smiled. "Nah. Haseo's got that pinned down pretty well. I don't think I'd be able to beat him. He's really strong. But… I'm fine with that, ya know?"

Serrara cleared her throat. "So… what's this going around that you've been following Jikan around for the past two days?"

Alkaid clearly jumped. "W-what are you talking about?"

Serrara smirked. "Just what is Jikan to you?"

"He's someone I have to defeat…" she replied, diverting her eyes.

"Then what are you to Jikan?" Sylph asked.

Serrara smirked even more. "What? I don't think he even remembers me. That's a stupid question to ask." Alkaid shot down the idea.

"So you know Jikan? Like, you've talked to him before?" Sylph pressed.

"Only once."

"When? When?"

"A couple of days ago! Why? What's got you so obsessed on him?" she fired back.

Serrara scratched her chin. "Well, isn't it natural for someone to know about the person who saved them?"

"And we only have ten minutes left! Claim your seats before they are filled! You just might be left standing outside!" The Commentator's voice echoed through the air. "And the first match will be Team Illusion versus Team Wind!"

"I've got to go get my spot. Maybe we can talk later."_ Or not, you two might get me into some awkward places. _Alkaid thought. She waved at the two odd girls and warped into the stands of the Arena.

* * *

"Cutting it closer than you have been, I notice." Sirius said, appearing from behind Alkaid.

Alkaid turned around to face her friend. Sirius was one of the few people who kept believing in her after she lost. "Hey Sirius. How long have you been here?"

Sirius crossed his arms. "Long enough to wonder if you weren't going to show up." He teased.

"You thought I wasn't going to show up?" she asked, but Sirius merely rolled his eyes, staring at the Commentator's box. "I wouldn't miss these fights." She said determining her own resolve.

"It's Jikan's fights, more likely, isn't it? I remember when he gave Taihaku his title. I was still the Holy Emperor back then as well. Don't tell me you want to fight Jikan?" Sirius asked.

"I don't want to fight him… but I want him to be the Sage Emperor again." She admitted.

Sirius considered her. "Even if that means that Taihaku wouldn't get a chance? What of Haseo? He saved all three of us from AIDA. Don't you have some sense of debt?"

"Debt? Why does holding a title mean that no one else can take it?" she asked back.

"He's fought hard-"

"Now, entering on the transfer panels we have Team Wind, and its players!" The commentator interrupted the conversation. "And at the same time, Team Illusion makes it's appearance as well! The two teams are bristling with tension!"

Drowning the Commentator out, Alkaid looked at Sirius and asked, "Jikan's match was the fourth one last time… does that mean that his match his next?"

"Yeah. It won't be too long, especially since you can't heal with items. Spells are granted, but it takes too long to heal in a bad situation. Kind of makes me want to try to fight for Sage Emperor as well." Sirius admitted.

The match took around ten minutes to settle out, leaving Team Illusion the victor of the match. Almost immediately, the next match was started up.

As soon as the victors of the match were transferred out of the Arena, Jikan was warped on the transfer panel. "Wow, that's a quick arrival on Team Jikan's behalf! Looks like he's ready to go too! Now, all we have to do now is wait for SaitoIkari to show up, and the next match will start!" He took a small breath before SaitoIkari appeared in the Arena as well. "Speak of the devil, it's SaitoIkari!" The two players were transferred over and the two stared each other in the eye. "What an extreme aura between the two of them! This looks like it could be an amazing fight!"

* * *

**AN:** Anyways, this chapter is mostly dialogue, but _finally_ I've brought Serrara and Slyph, otherwise known as Haruka and Keiko, respectively. Both _do_ attend the same school... and they have a closer relationship with Hiraku than they know. Also, next chapter I plan on finally revealing one of Hiraku's sisters during the E8's meeting (minus Iori, of course). One older sister, one younger sister, and an older brother that's overseas, to be exact. But only one of them has a real role, the rest are just for background information.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed, and try to not to forget to leave a review.


	12. Shadow of the Hour

Synaethasia peered into the darkness of the orb he held. "You're starting to wake up now, aren't you? But just what am I to you right now? What kind of dream am I influencing on you?" He cooed.

The orb quivered. It was responding to Gorre's captive data held in between one of the pillars. By now the presence was enough for the orb to start corrupting the data around it. However, Synaethasia, being completely immune to the orb's corrosion, simply held onto it as everything around him slowly glitched up.

Nex, long after returning from outside of the barrier, perked his attention at something. "There are three of them." He said impetuously. "They're close too."

Synaethasia merely looked up unconcerned. "Three? So we were sensing those three. Fidchel, Tarvos, and Macha must have detected Gorre's signature. I must give them their credit; they are rather fast at these types of things." Synaethasia praised. "One second…" he said, closing his eyes and concentrating on something. "There."

"They've stopped. Scared? No, confused. They're moving away." Nex commented. He turned his massive head to Synaethasia. "What did you do?"

He smirked. "It was nothing that difficult. I merely created a copy of Gorre somewhere else. Then I distorted this area more to throw them off. Lastly, I covered over Gorre's presence here with ambiguous data. They shouldn't be snooping around here any time soon."

* * *

After his quick match with Jikan, Terrapene's suspicions only grew more. He searched the Internet, especially combing the streams where Cubia was defeated, but found that the remaining traces of its data had vanished.

Striatus wasn't present in the fight with Jikan either, and now that Terrapene thought about it, Striatus had been hiding and been under the radar recently. With Cubia's disappearance and Jikan's sudden ability to assumed Striatus' form, along with a strange signal that came from him now, Terrapene started to piece everything together.

He combed the nearby networks again to find nothing, and he brought his attention back to Jikan. In a small screen that popped up, Jikan had his blade locked against another player's blade. Nothing seemed abnormal about him, but that same signal still came from the PC. Recalling from memory when Cubia had integrated itself in the Internet, he couldn't quite recall what was done with the leftover data…

* * *

Rutilus barged into Synaethasia's barrier, completely exhausted. Traveling quickly through the net had worn him out, but when his leader's attention caught on to him, he straightened out and bowed slightly.

"What's the matter, Rutilus?"

"I was searching for Vagrant AI's that could be used like you wanted them, but I've realized that Cubia's presence has moved!"

* * *

Terrapene took no precautions and forced his way in to the Serpent of Lore. Yata, Pi, and Endrance all looked at Aina's PC alarmed.

"Aina? No, Terrapene. Why are you here?" Pi asked.

"It's Cubia." He simply said, leaving the group in shock. "It's moved."

"So what made you catch on to Cubia?" Synaethasia asked.

"It was coincidence. An AI was talking about it with another one as I found them. Naturally, I pinned the two down and scanned them, but when I scanned the network for the trace files of Cubia that remained, I found that it was gone."

* * *

"Where ever it's moved to, it's beginning to restore itself on its own." Terrapene explained. "No, someone's interfered with the remains of Cubia."

* * *

"Cubia has… returned to The World." The two, in separate situations, said at the same time.

* * *

"There's no denying it now. I picked up a strange signal after I fought Jikan in the Sage Palace. I believe that it's regenerating within Jikan. Maybe it's just a fragment, but we need to monitor him even closer."

"He's starting to become rebellious. I personally don't blame him, given his situation." Pi shook her head and continued. "I mean, this is the Tsukasa case all over again, isn't it? Okay, so maybe this time our victim is a guy, and he's not exactly the shut-in type. Either way, he has to be feeling some stress. He wouldn't be human if he wasn't."

Yata considered that. "That's why he's fighting in the tournament. Well, that's what I'd assume. I know he had a small conversation with Alkaid, but participating in the Sage Palace on his own is proof that he must at least be amused by the fighting."

Terrapene growled. "Yata! Haven't you realized it yet? I can't believe this…" he grumbled. Yata looked at him blankly. "Jikan infected what's-his-name easily and completely unaware of the fact as well. True, now he knows how not to infect someone, but if Cubia's inside of him and mutating him, then what if he loses control again?" the AIDA growled. "Don't you realize yet what something like that could do?" he whispered. Then, after grasping Aina's long hair in his hands, his eyes hooded over and he continued. "If Cubia mutates Striatus' data while the latter's not present…"

"Then it's the same as a Cubia Epitaph." Yata interjected, catching what Terrapene was saying. "If it possessed him and attacked, people would loose their lives! Forget comatose… that's small scale if what you're saying is true."

Pi uttered in sheer shock, but nothing actually came out. Instead, Terrapene nodded gravely. "I overheard that you were going on a group trip to check out Jikan's… no, Hiraku's body. If it's deteriorating, then it's only certain that that's what's happening."

"Why can't you just scan Jikan's PC for Cubia?" Endrance asked.

Terrapene shook his head dejectedly. "Cubia would have grown smarter by now. If anything, I'd only find Striatus' data in Jikan. If anything… Cubia is inside Hiraku's body, like a virus."

"How would we be able to remove Cubia? It seems cruel to just let this happen to someone." Pi asked.

"We can't. Cubia either has to move on its own, or it will either rot away Hiraku's body until he dies, or it possesses him."

* * *

"What! That cannot be! Cubia shouldn't be moving again with only this small amount of time of recovery!" Synaethasia snarled. "Someone has interfered with it!"

"It's true. I haven't pinned down the new host of Cubia, but I'm certain that's a player within The World. Otherwise, we would have found it by now." Rutilus sweated.

"Damn it all… This is quite unexpected." Synaethasia responded. An idea flashed through his mind, and he motioned to Rutilus again. "Were you able to find how far Cubia has restored itself?"

"I couldn't. It's slowly losing its presence in The World. Actually, it's slowly… disconnecting itself from any and all networks to be accurate."

"To be fair… would you be able to give the Epitaph Users a scare by transforming into a duplicate of Cubia?" Nex asked.

"Cubia?" Rutilus pondered on the idea for a while. "I don't know. I mean, it's possible that I could take his form, but the signal from Cubia I found was too weak to acquire all of the information I need to reproduce the coding." He sighed. "Forms like these…" he demonstrated by warping into Atoli, then to Kuhn, "Are no problem, since I've data drained them." Rutilus returned to his normal form.

"And you'd need to data drain a portion from Cubia to create a perfect copy?" Synaethasia asked. Rutilus nodded. "I don't care about a host for now… Rutilus, you're now to find Cubia's host. Exe will remain hunting the Epitaphs. Nex… I still need you around."

The two other AIDA nodded, and Rutilus immediately left. Synaethasia threw his arms together and crossed them, annoyed. Now wasn't the time for mishaps like Cubia's sudden reappearance and disappearance. Things like that tended to become variables he couldn't control, and that left the future uncertain. Aida was his goal for now, but if Cubia stood to return, then the implications could be bad.

One, Synaethasia reasoned, was that in Aura's weakened state, it was the easiest to claim her power and give it to Aida. Cubia was part of the Twilight Bracelet, which was effectively Aura's power… if the Epitaphs managed to join the two his plan could fail. Two, if Cubia went berserk before he needed the distraction, then it could remove several pieces of his plan that he needed. The final issue with a premature revival of Cubia would be that Cubia's mere presence was enough to wipe away entire servers, even if they were fortified with AIDA. Anything that stood in its way, minus the Eight Epitaphs, would be wiped away. If he had released Aida prematurely as well, even she wouldn't be enough to take on Cubia.

No, with only Gorre's data, Aida would be defeated easily. Still, and AIDA-Epitaph would be more powerful than a regular Epitaph. It was common knowledge to beings like him that when Skeith defeated Cubia, it was only because the Terror of Death had all eight Epitaphs in his possession. Aida would only have one… and a weaker, inexperienced one at that. The only ability she would have would be the send extremely corrosive viruses. Not like they would be much use to something on Cubia's level, but still.

Synaethasia opened a small screen near him and contacted Exe. "We're losing time. The next Epitaph that finds itself alone, take it. I don't care what you have to do. Keep a look out for any traces of Cubia too; we don't want it going completely off the radar." He said, regaining his previous air.

* * *

Tomonari was the first of the seven to reach Hiraku's room. He was immediately glad that he left ahead and arrived early, as he noticed that Hiraku's left wrist was barren.

From a private conversation, Hiraku had told him that he had cut his wrist in his past due to his old tormentors. He was much younger then; at the time he had done it, he was only 13. However, eventually something within him snapped, and he had reversed the role of the tormentors in a quick flash. He had gotten in a fight with them, knocked one of the two bullies out, and before he could move on to the other, he was restrained.

Since then, Hiraku kept several wraps of cloth or an armband on his left wrist, in an attempt to hide away his past. He knew that something like this would happen, so carefully, Tomonari took out a small arm band and slid it over the scars.

He'd probably be scolded for giving him it, but he didn't particularly care much. In cases like these, if it were a personal matter he wouldn't mind going an extra mile to help his friends out. A quick succession of knocks came from the door, and Tomonari turned to see Ryou and Chigusa finally arrive.

Slumping his shoulders, Ryou scowled at Tomonari. "Why'd you have to just take off like that? You only got here a couple minutes before us."

"Uh…" Tomonari scratched his head, looking for a quick escape. "I was thirsty?" he said, hoping that he didn't fail that badly.

Cracking a smile, Ryou only looked away from him. "Sure." He said sarcastically.

"So this is Jikan." Chigusa murmured. "Or I should say Masaru-san?" she pondered.

Tomonari clapped Chigusa's back. "I don't think he'd mind if you called him Hiraku. He's not too big on formalities."

Another knock on the door alerted the three to another visitor. The door slid open to reveal Shino with a small vase of flowers. She initially looked surprised to see Ryou there, but it slowly changed to wonder as to why even Atoli's player was there. The other boy wasn't familiar, but it had to be another Epitaph User.

"Shino!" Ryou exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

Shino fumbled around with something in her pocket. "I just came to check up on Masato. Are you here for Masato as well?" she asked.

"Er, not this time around. It helps that he's in the same room though. We came for this guy." Tomonari said, pointing at Hiraku with his thumb.

Shino looked down at the teenager's body. She was beginning to dislike being in the same room as the other hospital patient; Hiraku was beginning to give off the aura of a dead body. He was still alive in all regards, but his body was abnormally cold, and it would only be a few hours at this rate until the physicians would move him to the ICU to keep him alive. Shino remembered that it was AIDA's presence inside of him that was doing this, but even if it was helping their side, it was ruining this boy.

Shino shuddered. "Well then. You plan on staying here long?" she asked. _Oh great, small talk._ Shino hated small talk, but even she accidentally let it slip from time to time.

Ryou shook his head. "No. Three others are on their way here… Pi… er… Reiko told you about the Epitaph Users, right? With Ovan, that'd make seven of us in here."

"Seven? But… there's eight, right?"

An uncomfortable silence spread through the room. Since no one was willing to answer Tomonari was about to before Ryou beat him to the line.

"We're short a member for now. It's complicated." Ryou vaguely mentioned just how dire the situation could be.

"Well, if you're short a member…" Shino blurted out. She wasn't thinking any of this through, not to mention that if she actually continued this though, how much danger she'd be in herself. Her pause attracted the attention of the three, and they looked at her curiously. Smiling, she shook her head. "Ah, it's nothing."

Tomonari scratched his head. "No, it seemed as if you were going to ask us something." After Shino diverted her eyes, he only pressed harder. "Hm?"

Chigusa intervened between the two. "Maybe it's not that important." She met Shino's eyes for a second, and a brief exchange of understanding flowed between the two. "I'm sorry, but you couldn't even if you wanted to." Slightly pushing Tomonari to the back, she continued. "If you could be anyone's User, you would have been Innis', but she moved to me instead. Gorre… well…"

"Like I said, it's complicated. If you want, since you were connected to Ovan the entire time, you can stick around when the rest get here and learn what's going on." Ryou offered. Shino nodded, and returned to her original objective of being at Masato's side.

Another ten minutes passed before the next User arrived. It was Endrance's player, Kaoru. He was extremely bothered and only started to relax a little when he closed the door behind him before he noticed Chigusa and Shino in the room. Girls were a problem for him, completely unpredictable, which wasn't the most confident inspiring thing he ever knew. Pulling one of the several seats in the room, he nodded at Ryou and Tomonari, but pretended not to notice Chigusa or Shino, and silently waited in a corner of the room.

Shortly after, the last two Users arrived at once, Reiko walked in followed by Takumi. They both still wore the CC Corp gear they wore at work, but at they claimed to be off. With all six active Users in the room present, Endrance reluctantly moved from his corner to the small half-circle.

Before addressing anyone else, Takumi examined Hiraku. "Well, then, I guess that settles it."

Reiko began their offline meeting while Takumi continued to check on Hiraku. "Before we left, the AIDA Terrapene came to us again." Immediately, the room went silent and Takumi sat down. Even Shino leaned forward now. "As important as what he said was, Iori should come first. I accessed his records, and he's currently listed as 'Critical but Stable'." There was a small breath of relief.

Takumi temporarily took over. "Ryou. After you encountered Rutilus, you found that you had significant bruising, correct?" Ryou nodded. "I thought as much." He said after a small pause. "This new AIDA… no, this stronger AIDA… the more damage it deals to our Avatars, our bodies take more damage."

"That's what happened with Iori. The process of having his Avatar removed in Avatar Space dealt more damage than Iori could take alone, and in the process, his body was stabbed as well. While there are rumors about abusive parents floating about, we can be sure that this is what happened." Reiko continued.

"What about Gorre? Can we take him back?" Ryou asked. All he got was a shrug from Takumi.

"We don't know. Whether or not the AIDA merely took Gorre from him or completely absorbed Gorre we can't determine. Earlier, we found the same signal that Gorre emitted but it jumped all over the network."

"So it's safe to say that whatever has Gorre hasn't destroyed it."

Ryou looked confused. "Wait. So that means that whatever has Gorre… has its data inside of it?"

"No. Something with as much power to take away an Avatar completely would completely fuse itself with the captive Avatar. We wouldn't have sensed Gorre's presence at all. We can assume that the AIDA responsible is holding it captive."

Tomonari thought carefully about it. "I have an idea," he said slowly. The others looked at him. "Could we bait AIDA in attacking one of us? Someone who would actually stand a chance?"

Takumi grunted with displeasure. "There's no way CC Corp would go along with that plan. If they found out that you were just handing over Epitaphs, they'd go ballistic."

Tomonari pinched the bridge of his nose. "No, no, I mean Ryou, Kaoru, or me." He hoped that his plan was finally starting to connect. "Come on, Skeith, Macha, and Magus are the most powerful Epitaphs, if we don't include Corbenik." He said, glancing over at Masato's body. "True, it's dangerous, but we three have the best chance! My Epitaph connected with me first, so our strength is the greatest, and since Ryou has used Skeith so many times, their strength is great as well. And while Kaoru and Macha may not have fought great opponents, they've became Avatars several more times than Magus or Skeith."

Takumi listened in silence, so Tomonari continued. "It's true that Chigusa and Innis have been training lately, and while we both just fended off an AIDA attack, I don't think that they're quite ready. As for you… well…"

"I know. Fidchel and I aren't really connected yet. I still haven't been able to transform into his Avatar form, even thought he's finally willing to talk to me. Reiko?"

She shook her head. "I'm sorry but… It looks like this round belongs to you three." She said solemnly.

"So, which one of us should pose as bait?" Ryou asked.

Kaoru finally spoke. "I'll do it. Skeith should be our trump card, just like it was when Cubia attacked." He was finally acting free from his inhibitions. "Tomonari, you should focus on training with Ryou soon."

"Kaoru… who would have guessed…?" Reiko murmured.

"Anyways, the other thing we need to talk about…" Takumi paused. "Is Cubia."

"Cubia!"

"Cubia's moved. Whatever's happening to Hiraku is probably because of Cubia. Something awakened it, and now it's escaping from the Internet. Chances are, it's taking the connection between Jikan and Hiraku to take possession of Hiraku's body." He explained.

"Cubia… can't be coming back… I destroyed it!" Ryou raged.

"Settle down… it's nowhere near what it used to be, but all we can tell is that-"

The door knocked once more. A young woman, probably around her younger twenties walked in, oblivious to the large group of people. She had long, sandy brown hair and a lock of hair that curled out of place. As soon as she closed the door behind her, her attention span quickly found the seven visitors.

It was a long duration of silence as a dumbfounded smile was etched on her face. "Who are you?" she asked.

Clearly, no one knew how to answer her best, and whether or not she had overheard anything. "Can we ask who you are?" Reiko asked back.

With a dignified sniff, the woman slid her fingers in her hair to straighten it out, and she pulled her shirt collar up. "I'm Shiori, Hiraku's older sister." Obviously, she hadn't heard a thing.

The room went silent, all except Tomonari who gulped and pointed at her. "Sh-Shiori!" He fretted in his mind. He heard how strict Hiraku's sister was, and now that all of Hiraku's online friends and acquaintances were gathered, he wasn't quite sure how to react.

"Yeah, got a problem with my name?" she asked, imposing a demeaning aura on them.

Immediately making things worse, Ryou returned Shiori's stare. The two considered each other for a moment. "So you're Hiraku's friends I take it? You-" she pointed at Reiko and Kaoru "don't look like you're his teachers or anything." She scanned the room, and found Shino. She had conveniently moved to Masato's bedside and was staring at her sheepishly.

The wild woman had brought a round of nervousness to the social recluse, causing him to back off in the corner. "We're…"

"Wait, only one thing makes sense to me… is that you're some of his online friends…" she thought aloud. "How touching, though. Never would have expected him to make such close of friends that they'd even visit him while he was comatose."

"He lives alone, how do you know what he does in his spare time?" Tomonari asked. All he got was a devilish smile.

"I'm his older sister; I tend to know a few things."

Kaoru, finally having enough of being outside to last him several weeks, he stood up, bowed a bit to Ryou, then promptly left. He made a good amount of effort to completely bypass Shiori, but stopped short of the door. "I'll be online, with Her." He said, and then vanished from their vision behind the closing door.

Shiori crossed her arms. "I wonder how he came to know that boy."

"I think it's time we should be getting back to work." Takumi hinted at Reiko, who nodded and the two followed Kaoru's lead.

Chigusa and Ryou wound up leaving shortly after, leaving only Shino, Shiori, and Tomonari left in the hospital room. Even then, the air became dense and eventually Shino decided to take a walk around the hospital. Only once did a doctor come in that immediately noticed Hiraku's falling body temperature and left to inform the nurses in charge of him.

"I thought you left with Ryuu?" Tomonari wondered aloud.

"Ryuu? No… Brother took off on his own without us two years back. But I'm surprised you remember our family, Tomo."

"Don't call me that anymore."

"Kazue misses you coming over."

"Yeah, I'd expect so. She was only… 11 then?" Shiori nodded.

The two lapsed into silence. "This coma isn't natural, is it?" she whispered.

"Why are you asking me?"

"Who else would know?"

"I can't say."

"He's my brother! You're… you're the one person that he confided to. You have to tell me."

A couple of nurses entered the room. "Excuse me, but you two have to leave. Now." The two nurses, both men, scurried the two visitors out and pushed Hiraku's body onto a stretcher and started to roll him away to another part of the hospital.

"Where're you taking him?" Shiori demanded.

"Are you his family?" the nurse responded.

"I'm his sister!" she growled.

The nurse seemed annoyed, but indulged. "We're taking him to the ICU. His body temperature is falling quickly, and a virus is starting to spread in his body."

Shiori stopped, eyes widened in shock. "You can't be serious! He looks just fine!" she gasped.

The nurse flashed a thermometer at her, which read 94.5. "It's a wonder no one was alerted to this faster."

Tomonari was quickly left behind and forgotten as Shiori bombarded the nurses with more question, none of which were now being answered. Eventually, she was held back by a couple of doctors outside of Hiraku's new room, which was being constantly monitored now.

Now there was the falling body temperature and a strange virus, both of which came out of the blue shortly after Cubia's return. Things kept spiraling downwards; whether they could control it or not, fate was pressing against the Users. Time was starting to become their enemy.

* * *

"Aura…"

The middle of the forest was a large clearing, with small blocks of multi-colored blocks of data flying around. Some converged temporarily, creating a small object, but quickly split off from the other, flying back into space.

In the main and secondary directions, thin pillars carved with delicate etches loomed. Each one held a small orb of light connected each orb in a large, eight pointed star made up of an intangible blue energy. One point was dimmed and red wile the lines running off of it were incredibly unstable, wavering around dangerously.

"Ovan," Aura's voice echoed. Ovan glanced around looking for the source. He turned around to see a young teenager dressed in pure white with a neck ornament in the shape of the infinity sign: Aura.

"This is quite the place you have here." He commented.

Aura appeared to not take notice of his statement. "…"

"So, what did you want to take to me about?"

Aura merely pointed her finger to the center of the circle. "Join the other Children of Morganna. They need your help more than ever." She said.

He didn't disobey her and just walked over to the center, pointing a finger at himself. "Log out." She commanded.

Ovan promptly checked his usual menu, and found that to Aura's word, the Log Out option had finally resurfaced. "What is this…?"

"You can't help them like you are now. They need your physical being restored as well. Morale is everything now." Aura explained.

Ovan nodded, and after his character sizzled with sparks, logged out.

* * *

The outside world finally was within grasp. Masato couldn't open his eyes, but he could hear people fussing over him. He could feel IV chords sticking out of him, and a breathing apparatus in him as well. He was strangely content though- a probable side effect of the drugs that were no doubt coursing through him.

A warm hand lifted his arm and a cold plate of metal pressed down, checking his heart rate. Masato struggled to open his eyes again, but it was too bright still. Maybe to fall back asleep, just for one more night, wasn't such a bad idea. Then again, priority should go to alerting his caretakers first.

"Heart rate is increasing. Brain activity suggests that he's regaining consciousness." A nurse spouted off countless other facts.

He couldn't help a couple of his fingers twitching as he moved again in couple months. Now Masato could feel the presence of the nurses surrounding him.

"Mr. Indou? Are you awake?" a woman's voice asked. It was one of the nurses that he had seen frequently when he watched himself from afar in the Sea. A weak but affirmative grunt made noise for the first time in Masato's voice.

"By God… he's actually awake! Alright… can you open your eyes?" she asked. However, even though he had been asleep for the longest of time, he already felt exhausted and fell back asleep.

The nurse hovering over him slouched back disappointed. "Well, I guess if he wants some sleep, he should get it."

* * *

"Neither the Sage Emperor or the challenger has arrived yet!" The commentator yelled out anxiously. "But don't fret! I'm certain that they'll be here within minutes!"

Ryou had finally arrived back home before dropping Chigusa off at her house, where he was greeted with a quick suspicious look from her father. Then, remembering his match against Hiraku, went to meet Jikan in The World before the match.

"Your body isn't doing too hot you know." Haseo said.

Jikan didn't look too enthused when he replied. "It'll all turn out just fine. Meh… I don't like talking about what-ifs that much, let's just move on. What else happened?"

"The usual meeting… This isn't exactly good news to hear but…"

"It can wait. Come on; let's have our match already. I bet there's a bunch of people waiting for us." Jikan said, changing the subject. Haseo sighed, but followed him regardless. Why did things never work out how he wanted them to?

* * *

**AN:** okay, so this chapter begins a bit trippy. Going back and forth between the two sides was kindof annoying, but it was the fact that the two sides learned of something at the same time... Still, I hope that wasn't that difficult to decipher.

Next chapter we have our match with Haseo and Jikan, but really, why have a fight between the two so early? Ah, you'll see.

Also, I've been working on two other fanfics now... I have to blame my friend, we were talking about pokemon... then it's like... jeez... I actually like the plot of what we're making here. so now, that's another Pokemon FF that I'll have to actually post in the near future.

Anyways, don't be a stranger, drop a review!


	13. The Tide Turns

**AN: **H-hey... It's been awhile audience. Hope you've all been reading well. : D

* * *

"The Sage Emperor and the challenger arrive at the same time! This match can only be guaranteed to make you sit at the edge of your seat, so get ready as the two begin!"

Haseo placed a hand on his forehead irately. "Jikan, if I win you have to listen to me, alright?"

"If _you_ win. In case you've forgotten, we're both Sage Emperor material here, and I was Emperor a lot longer than you were." Jikan laughed haughtily.

Haseo growled, "Come on, can't you just know what's going on at least?"

He was forced to summon his twin blades as Jikan approached him with his blade out. "Sure thing, but I just don't want a damper on our fight, that's all." The two clashed blades - Haseo's twin blades sawing away furiously against Jikan's katana. "I mean, if we get all solemn and stuff, what's to prevent our match from becoming all dark and boring!"

Jikan pushed against the twin blades harder, forcing Haseo back. More sparks flew off the blades as Haseo pushed all of Jikan's force onto one of his blades while he struck out with the other, damaging him slightly. The crowd cheered as the first damage was dealt.

The battle was like two magnets being pushed together, then repelling each other. The two would clash, then push each other off and striking again. Jikan had changed to his twin blades, which ignited a high-speed flurry of attacks. While in this form the two had both taken damage quickly in small increments.

Haseo finally changed his weapon to his broadsword to force Jikan to change back to his katana. The two stood in their stances drawing out tension in the air. Even the stadium fell silent until the two blades clashed, sending a visible shockwave that caused the cheer in the crowds to burst again.

Haseo's heavy broadsword kept Jikan at a distance, even though he had plenty of opportunities to approach his opponent. If he had rushed the opening though, Haseo simply would have used his handle to knock him back.

Jikan pulled back and panted before addressing Haseo. "Well, you're definitely pretty good. I'm sort of curious to see how we'd fare on the next level." He grinned devilishly. "But that'd be boring, and I don't like using that form. Let's not transform, alright?" He asked.

Haseo scowled. "I wasn't even planning on using Skeith. What makes you think I'd even consider that?" Jikan's face reddened a bit.

"I don't know, maybe you wouldn't have thought it was a full and fair match if we didn't go out?" he asked innocently.

Haseo pinched the bridge of his nose. "You're… never mind."

Haseo brought out his scythe at the same time Jikan did, and the two faced each other down. Jikan made the first move by jumping into the air and slicing at Haseo as he neared the ground. A counter swing in the opposite direction from Haseo negated the attack, and the two blades created sparks as they spun around. Haseo took a small opening in Jikan's defense and hit him in the side with the shaft, stunning Jikan. He brought the shaft around and struck Jikan on the head, then prepared to deal a massive blow by swinging the wicked blade crashing down on Jikan. Haseo's plan failed when Jikan recovered faster than he anticipated and sidestepped the blow while hitting Haseo with the flat of his scythe.

The match continued and the two slowly grew more tired. Even with the healing abilities granted to both players, it seemed to Jikan that Haseo had merged himself with the game to at least fight on Jikan's level. He noticed that and called it out.

"Haseo, you're… actually here, aren't you? Kind of like how I am?" Jikan asked.

Haseo was taken aback. "You already found out? Yeah… it's the same as when I become Skeith… As you said, it makes our fight more real." He answered.

Jikan grinned. "Good answer!"

* * *

On the stands next to the Arena, Atoli and Kuhn remained watching their two friends face off. Atoli had a look of concern etched on her face, but Kuhn couldn't look less worried.

"Relax Atoli, they know not to go all out on each other. Well, at least Haseo does."

"You know that's not what I'm worried about." She persisted. "The last time Jikan was in the Arena, terrible stuff happened!"

"You're superstitious. GO HASEO!" he rooted. When Kuhn noticed Atoli's face depicting doubt, Kuhn sighed. "SHOW 'IM WHAT YOU'RE MADE OF JIKAN!"

"Can't you decide on who to root for?" she questioned.

Kuhn laughed. "Aha, I guess not. I can't help it, it's not like you've known Jikan that long. Besides, isn't Haseo your little lovebird?"

Atoli blushed. "I-I-" she stuttered.

"What're you two talking about?" Alkaid said, walking in on the two.

Both Epitaph Users gave her a look of surprise, but Atoli made certain that the conversation changed topic.

"Who'll win the title match, right Kuhn?" Unlike her normal character, she was unusually assertive here.

"Yeah, yeah…" Kuhn mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I got my bets placed on Haseo myself." Alkaid said, crossing her arms and striding in between the two of them. "I mean, Jikan's pretty good, but Haseo's just… He took down Cubia, after all."

Atoli and Kuhn glanced at each other. "Yeah, but… You shouldn't count Jikan out of victory just yet." _After all, he has AIDA within him, and those powers mirror ours._

"I know now…"

That single phrase caught both of the Users off guard. "K-know what?" Kuhn stammered.

Alkaid looked back with a surprised expression. "Oh… I meant to say that I know that Jikan's become stronger since he was last Sage Emperor. You guys remember, back before all that stuff with AIDA? Just before I became Demon Emperor?"

Atoli shook her head, but Kuhn nodded. "Can't say he's still the same." He thought of both Striatus and Cubia.

"You feel it too?" Alkaid looked at Kuhn confused. "I mean, I talked to him not too long ago, and he just didn't feel right."

Atoli gave Alkaid a questioning look. "What do you mean by that?"

Alkaid took a second to look at the title match again, but the match wasn't going to end anytime soon. "Not emotionally… more like…" she thought what she was saying over in her head, trying to word it right. "It's like he was Haseo, back when he was the Terror of Death."

Atoli gasped. "You mean he's been going out and PKing people!"

"No, no! The mindset, I mean!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"He's becoming more violent. It's like he has some pretty bad mood swings, before, he was known to try to remember his fans. Now, he just blows everyone off like they don't even exist…"

Kuhn shrugged a little. "Well, he could be going through some life troubles. You know. Maybe he's having some financial troubles?"

The World quivered. As the death match continued, the players who were too enthralled in the match did not notice the seal on the Omega Server that was being placed. Even the uninterested players slacked off, and didn't care to leave the Server. On the other side though, people were finding it impossible for people to transfer servers. Nothing appeared wrong inside of the Omega server, but to a watchful eye, a network of black dots began to cover the sky, just barely visible to the naked eye.

Alkaid scoffed. "Whatever." The three set their focus back on the arena. Above the stands, the layer of nearly-invisible AIDA started to cover the entire sky.

The contestants in the match didn't notice it either, everyone's attention was on the two's movements and controls. Some of the more observant watchers began to notice the irregularities in the movements: sometimes either Jikan or Haseo made moves that were not set in the game – neither special techniques either – and far too real.

Then The World quivered again. This time, it was followed by severe shaking, dislodging players from reality and trapping them in the game. Everyone had been affected, but by the time that they had time to investigate what was happening, the blanket of AIDA had completely covered the Omega server, the entire server transferred itself on its own.

* * *

Haseo clutched his head as he struggled to his feet. He wasn't connected to his body anymore, and he couldn't feel it even if he wanted to. He opened his eyes, and found a huge sand covered version of Lumina Cloth. Desert sun pounded on him, and as he realized, several hundred unconscious players strewn about over the sand.

Sensing movement, the white Adept Rogue turned around, to see Jikan wearily standing up as well. In the distance, two more figures were getting back up to their feet. Most of the players, however, were not responsive, even in the circumstances though.

"Haseo? What just…" Jikan paused, shaking off sand. "What happened to us?" Sand poured out of the folds of his white robes.

_I've never seen AIDA do this before. The entire server has been transferred. _Skeith observed. "It looks like we've all been sent somewhere by AIDA." Haseo shrugged.

Jikan groaned. "Can't I do anything anymore without it being somehow related to AIDA?"

The ground shook again, and the sand made the vibrations even stronger. When they recovered, the two other figures, Kuhn and Atoli, managed to meet up with the two other conscious players.

"Haseo! Magus told us that we're in an AIDA server now." Kuhn said, winded from the heat. "Certainly feels like we're stuck in the game now." He said, balling and clenching his fist.

Overhead, a huge purple hole in the sky tore open, and the form of Exe appeared, stepping out of the portal. He looked around, investigating his work. "What do you think? I like this remodel more than the previous."

As Exe floated down to ground level, the four players summoned their weapons. "Who're you?" Jikan asked, brandishing his katana.

"Does it matter? I'm just a virus that's here to collect." He too pulled out his modified sword, orb in place and sparkling red. "But I'm not here for you, traitor, I'm here for the Epitaphs." Exe made an arc with his sword, and the ground was pulled into Avatar Space. "LOCK!" He yelled out, and in a second, impaled Jikan for a split second and backed up.

Jikan was pushed back, surrounded in a swarm of AIDA's black dots. Black electricity prevented him from moving, and several Anna AIDA appeared and hovered around him. The Epitaph Users simultaneously transformed into their Avatars, filling up the small gap in space before they had to spread themselves up.

Skeith took the lead of the formation, with Innis and Magus in the back. Exe, however, took no particular stance and instead rushed past Skeith, so quickly that he had no time to react. "Be gone in a second!" He murmured, leaving a small particle of AIDA behind him. As Skeith turned around, the particle expanded, and Skeith was consumed in an explosion created from self-destructing AIDA.

The explosion cleared, and Haseo's body drifted in Space. "I've been fooled." Exe stated, staring at Innis and Magus. "Or rather, copies. I didn't expect you to be that quick in executing such high-detailed copies of such intricate things, like Avatars." Exe's locks of hair moved slightly, and he dodged an invisible strike from behind him. "Too obvious." He grasped something in the air and pierced it, which faded in to be Skeith.

"H-how-?" Skeith asked, doubling over.

"And the strongest Avatar falls." Exe said, without sympathy. He flipped over the damaged Avatar over him, and cut it again, then paused as streams of data began to leak from his chest. "I might not have a body as monstrous as the others, but I think you've underestimated me by my looks."

"Haseo!" Innis shouted, breaking the illusions that were in place. Exe turned around, elegantly twisting his sword to deal more damage to the paralyzed Avatar, and set the sword free.

"Atoli! Stay back! We need to think before we attack back!" Magus frantically yelled, trying to recreate the illusions.

Exe's face glowed red as his sword did the same. "I swear, I'm the only one capable of doing anything right here. Perhaps…" He murmured, pointing his sword at the charging Innis Epitaph. "I shall end this quickly. I have other things to do now."

Rose petals surrounded Exe, knocking the sword out of his hand, which sent an arc of black energy shooting out into the deep background. Exe's eyes narrowed as he searched for the source of attack. Appearing from a cluster of roses, Endrance appeared, his Epitaph markings glowing brightly, sword drawn.

Exe vanished, appearing in front of Endrance, his sword colliding with Endrance's. "Macha. This could get dangerous if teamwork is used again." Exe retreated, dodging a wave of energy sent by Magus. "…But at this rate, I already have an Epitaph ready to-" He paused, noticing that Skeith had vanished. A long blade pierced Exe through his back, the tip protruding from his chest. "How did-" AIDA particles scattered from his chest as the sword unsheathed itself from Exe's chest. Exe turned his head slightly, and found Jikan, chained in AIDA, blade extended.

"Y-you thought that you c-could restrain m-me?" Jikan gasped for air, before collapsing. AIDA particles bounced off of him before the PC turned black and faded, signifying an exit from Avatar Space.

Exe scowled as the sword burst into streams and blocks of data. The damage was insignificant, but that maneuver was only a distraction, and he had completely fallen for it. He scanned the Avatar Space: Magus and Innis had vanished again, and only Endrance, with his Epitaph marks burning remained visible. Skeith, paralyzed, floated in the distance, but it was most likely a copy now. He had lost his chance to acquire the Avatar for the moment, but the Terror of Death was incapacitated.

Endrance brandished his blade. "Are you AIDA? Like the one that attacked before?" He asked.

Exe's body finished repairing itself from the surface damage, and faced Endrance. "Macha. Restrained. Three against one." Exe paused. "I'm running out of time for this."

Endrance was enveloped by a large rose, which turned upside-down, and opened up to reveal Macha's form. "We can feel that you're AIDA. You should take your true form if we're going to continue."

Exe's mouth smirked slightly. "Quite confident in your prowess." He extended his arm, and his sword returned to his hand, glowing red already.

Macha's petals fluttered around in dizzying numbers, until a complete background was filled with only the petals. Macha raised her hand into the air, and the petals began to shine brightly. Exe responded by holding his free hand up near his throat and patiently waited. Several seconds passed before a countless number of red arcs descended, all smashing into the single spot Exe had been at. The barrage continued for several seconds, before it ended in a cloud of smoke and AIDA particles. Endrance, visible within Macha, narrowed his eyes.

The cloud burst open, with Exe still standing in the same stance as before. His eyes slowly moved across the battlefield, trying to determine where Magus and Innis were. As the sky lit up for a second barrage from Macha, Exe took flight, narrowly avoiding each blast as they came down. He never attacked, simply keeping his distance as his sword began to glow red again.

A cluster of leaves appeared in front of Exe, all of them appearing to be active. He swiped his sword in a large arc, slicing the leave before they were able to detonate; his eyes never leaving Macha out of his vision. Blue bolts flew through the air seconds after, and Exe resorted to defending himself, his hand clutching the air in front of his throat. Each of the attacks bounced off harmlessly, and were sent off spiraling in random directions.

Blue static flashed as an invisible object was struck, and Exe turned his head to investigate, disregarding the trio of Avatars. "You cloaked Skeith, but you didn't recover it?" Exe returned his sights on Macha, but in the split second, another copy of Macha had appeared. "Or was this a diversion in order to further outnumber me?" He asked.

Both Machas spoke at once. "You're wasting your own time now. It's almost time that we ended this." Exe tilted his head, but pointed the sword at Skeith. "I won't let you delete Skeith!" The twin Machas yelled out.

Exe smiled slightly, a rare emotion he had displayed in the fight, as red tendrils shot out of the sword and crashed into the unmoving Avatar. Quickly, more tendrils engulf the Avatar, leaving a large mass of red and black data floating in the air, connected by a few veins of data to Exe's sword. Similarly, the same bars of energy blocked off an attack from the two Machas, only one of which was prevented from moving further.

"Deletion? Erasing?" The mass of data disappeared, absorbed by the veins, which receded back into Exe's sword. Haseo's PC was left, critically damaged and floating in the Avatar Space. "You haven't realized it yet, it appears." The freely floating copy of Macha deteriorated, and the shackles of red data tightened around Macha, even though rose petals were furiously sawing away at the bars.

Again, the dual protective barriers concealing Innis, Magus, and Macha dissipated. This time, though, Magus's leaves, hundreds of them, surrounded Exe. Innis appeared before Exe, a single blue blade suddenly impacted Exe's chest. As she retreated, the leaves began to detonate.

Exe again took his defensive stance, but as Innis managed to dive out of the ever-growing explosions, any and all trace of Exe was lost amongst the smoke and fire. The explosion continued to rage on.

Haseo's body drifted around from the explosions, lying on a current of data created by Magus to propel it around the dying fire. The rose petals vanished, and the damage to the Avatar Space became apparent. Hexagonal patterns in the background were flashing red, and stardust and debris floated everywhere.

The Avatar Space flickered. "We aren't deleting these Avatars." Exe's voice resounded. "We're extracting them via a method of Data Drain." The three Avatars focused their attention back to the center of the smoke, which blew away as a transparent, black bubbled flickered away. "Skeith… Was easier to claim than he said it would be." The bubbled faded away as Exe pointed his sword, teeming with more red energy, at Innis.

"Haseo- Skeith- how are we supposed to-?" Innis asked, looking down at Haseo's PC as it drifted past them.

"You cannot." Exe bluntly announced. "At least, not while I have control."

Magus sent two leaves hurtling through the air, but Exe cut through both of them as they reached him, the speeding halves exploding far later than intended, causing Exe's hair to whip about rapidly.

"Rutilus never tested the abilities of his weapons. If he was smart, he would have been able to take Magus or Innis earlier." Exe mused.

"Gorre? You- You have them? " Innis asked, startled.

"Of course we do. I won't bother lying at this point. And Skeith will be joining Gorre. Hopefully, Skeith here will provide a much better source than Gorre will. After all…" He paused, blinking slowly. "Skeith. Has. All. Eight. Epitaphs. Within. Its. Data." He said slowly. "Of course, having the actual eight in whole would be better."

"You won't get away with taking any others!" Macha threatened, sending several swirling arcs of energy at Exe.

"We won't let you take anything else from us!" Magus yelled. Four leaves spiraled around themselves, circling around Exe haphazardly as he dodged the attacks from Macha.

Exe flew back, destroying one of the leaves as he retreated to a planet that was still intact in the distance, but the other three followed him like missiles. His sword created a red glare, and he swung his sword in an arc, sending dozens of arcs of black AIDA particles at the leaves, causing them to grow dull and deteriorate.

As he touched on the surface of the small planet, he stabbed his sword into the ground, and a pulse of AIDA particles were sent out into the Avatar Space. As he predicted, Magus, Innis, and Macha all came into view clearly, all three stunned.

With incredible speed, Exe leaped back into his pursuers paths, but as he neared Innis, but a hole opened up in the space over Macha. A single, small green AIDA with a pulsating light blue core inside dazedly floated towards Exe.

"A… Messenger…?" Exe pondered. The Avatar Space was dissolved, as did the Avatars themselves as the Epitaphs returned inside their Users, who were paralyzed as AIDA bound them in small chains.

Exe raised his free hand, and a stream of black particles flowed back and forth between him and the Messenger AIDA. "Very well." Exe sighed, and lowered his arm. "Synaethasia…"

The AIDA coils dissipated from the Epitaph Users, dropping them to the sandy ground. "W-what are you going to do now?" Kuhn asked, stumbling to his feet.

"…" Exe turned around, cutting a hole into the server and put a foot through. "May you never see me again." He said, without turning back. After he stepped inside the hole, the Messenger followed behind. Within several seconds, the desert Lumina Cloth was returned to normal, only any and all PCs of regular players were logged out immediately. Several seconds later, and the Epitaph's PCs were warped out of Lumina Cloth as well.


End file.
